Blankface
by kstefan88
Summary: The Soul link failed. Luciela awakened. The Organization barely survived. I am Jacqueline, the Number 40. They say they need power. They say they need eyes. Time for them to notice me, I say. Canon until the Org's fall, mostly OCs, also canon Characters inside. (((Hiatus!)))
1. Introduction

Author's Notes

_DISCLAIMER:_

Claymore, in all its elements, belongs to Norihiro Yagi

All the characters and story elements that are not part of the official Claymore storyline belong to me

_Who am I?_

I am kstefan88, 24 of age, from Germany. At the moment I am doing my "Abitur" (comparable to the A levels in Britain) in order to study Physics or Mechanical Engineering. I enjoy Manga, Claymore and One Piece the most, as well as Anime, taking endless walks and writing.

_What is this going to be?_

For about six months I have constantly been thinking about "what is going to happen after the Organization's fall?" In endless hours of thinking about all the possibilities I more and more got a picture of what I would like it to be like.

However, I don't like writing already existing characters that much so it was clear to me that I will make my very own characters to play the important roles. On that behalf I decided that, to properly introduce them, I will dedicate this story that you are about to read to them.

I am not going to alter the official storyline crucially. After the Organization's fall this work or the follow up story will with almost absolute certainty create an alternate universe.

Note: this is my first bigger work in the English language, so please be gentle. If you see something that hurts your eyes, however, feel free to tell me.

_Status quo at the beginning:_

Luciela's Era had ended with her awakening. Half of the warriors are dead. The strongest one remaining, Rafaela, got stripped off her number and had to go into hiding. Even though this scenario had been predicted by some, the Organization was not properly prepared for it. They were short on hands and stuffed all more or less capable warriors into the spots that were to fill.

One of them was number 40, Jacqueline. After she had been turned into a half-human, half-Yoma being her hair's color still remained raven. Therefore she was considered a failed experiment but still got a rank due to the lack of warriors.

During her jobs she grew stronger and gained abilities the Organization was not aware of. As time went by, however, she finally got the chance to prove what she really was capable of.

_Anything else?_

I plan on releasing one chapter every two or three weeks, but I am not going to rush anything here.

And now I hope that you'll enjoy it :)


	2. Chapter 1: Blankface

**Chapter 1 - Blankface**

Crackling and sizzling sounds were everything that opposed the silence of a forest at night. A small campfire, made by the one sitting close to it, had been lit there, to provide warmth and light – something that was rare to people like her in those days.

The sight that person gave was nothing out of the ordinary to people who knew where to find people of her kind. Other might have been curios about who lightheartedly settled down in a forest alone to camp, but would soon have come to the conclusion that there was only one kind of people around who would do so while still being sane. If they could be called that, of course.

All around were Yoma, the predators of humankind. They were humanoid monsters with great strength and speed and, what was worst, with the ability to disguise themselves as humans. Being able to even copy the personality of the ones they possessed perfectly, even the close friends and relatives of the befallen one had no means of telling, the he or she actually was a Yoma.

The people of that time and age were living in constant fear of someone close to them or even themselves being turned into or eaten by a Yoma. However, there were people capable of finding and slaying them. A weapon created by an Organization that officially had the purpose of helping those threatened by a Yoma. By merging the flesh and blood of a fallen Yoma with the living body of a human they created a half-Yoma, half-human existence with the capability of sensing the predators of humankind, finding them and slaying them. Due to the weapons they carried to do so, a double edged broadsword of about a meters length, the people just called them _Claymore_.

Those Claymore, female warriors who had forfeited being human to slay Yoma, were the only hope for common people to deal with their demonic predators. Still, being partly Yoma themselves, the humans feared them just as much as they feared Yoma. That was another reason for them to mostly stay deep in a forest, late at night, all on their own, just being accompanied by a claymore and a campfire.

Jacqueline was one of them. Right then she did, what most of her comrades also did after finishing a job: sitting in front of a campfire, their blade impaled to the ground, leaning against it and waiting. Waiting for a certain man, a so called handler, member of the Organization, to assign a new job to them.

Not much was to do during their time waiting. As a non-human being they had very few need for things like food, water and sleep. Doing without them for several days was way more than enough. So all they mostly did, while waiting for their handlers, was, in essence, waiting.

To Jacqueline, however, that was nothing worth complaining about. She got her jobs, she did her jobs, and waited for new ones. That was all she had been doing for about five years then. This routine was engraved into her like the symbol on her sword – the only thing to certainly identify her when worst came to worst.

At that evening her head was, even though her face would never have suggested it, with thoughts and emotions of all coleur. While absentmindedly staring into the campfires dancing flames, she remembered missions she had had, people she had saved, comrades she had met – just to figure out how boring, ingrate and distant all of them were.

Being alone and feared by the townspeople did not concern her in the slightest, but the former, her jobs and their easiness, had steadily gotten on her nerves. It was always the same: sense Yoma, effortlessly kill Yoma, not improving in the slightest.

Whenever she met other warriors, it sounded "has been promoted," "died on a job," "has dragged me out of hell" and the like. She never had had experiences like that. Not that she exactly wanted to die, that wouldn't have solved matters, either, but still she had never before encountered an actually dangerous mission. She always kept asking herself how exactly it was possible to die on simple Yoma hunts. From her point of view, of course.

The rustling of some leaves got her attention. Knowing, who was approaching her, she didn't care to look. A man, fully dressed in black, had come close to the campfire. He considered sitting down for a moment, but then decided to remain standing.

After a moment of silence between them, he broke it: "Back uninjured again, as I see."

Jacqueline remained silent and kept staring into the campfires warming light.

It took the man just a mere look to see, that he had her attention. If anyone, he could see the close to unnoticeable changes in Jacqueline's firm expression. He had known her for five years, after all.

"I fear that there is something else I have to bother you with, Jacqueline. Half a days walk to the north you will find the town of Kron. It lies atop a hill and is open to all sides, you should not be able to miss it. They have send a request to exterminate a Yoma. Please take care of it."

"So it's a normal job as always, I suggest?" the warrior asked her handler.

The man in black directed his gaze to the campfire that Jacqueline had made about an hour before.

"I see" she said, taking his silence as a yes. "If that is the case," she continued, "I will be on my way with the sun's rise."

Her handler mustered his warrior for a bit. For five years he had been in charge of her and through all those years she always wore the same face. It stuck out amongst all the other warriors, way more than the fact that her hair still had a raven color. Being turned into a half-human, half-Yoma existence optically changed three viewable things about a human. The first was a scar on the stomach, a scar so disgusting to scare nearly every man away from a warrior, no matter, how beautiful she was. The second was their eyes' color that changed to silver, the thing the Claymore got their nickname, _Silver-Eyed Witches_, from. The third one was their hair, it usually turned into a pale blond if not even white color. Not for Jacqueline, however.

That fact made the Organization think of her as a _failed experiment_, a warrior of no real use. Still, at the time Jacqueline actually had finished her training, what earned her something like a praise from Marco, their trainer, the Organization was in dire need for capable warriors. They had no time to care about things like a warrior's hair having remained black. They just took everything they could get and stuffed it into the ranks that were to fill.

Just weeks before her final test, the Number 1 at that time, Luciela, awakened. A Number 1, supposedly the strongest of all warriors alive, surpassing her human limits – and therefore turning into a monster far beyond everything most warriors could even imagine. Half of the Organization's forces, including trainees, were killed due to that incident. Jacqueline had been there, too, but was unable to move. Until she saw a certain warrior fearlessly going against that monster, that was. She was not able to do much, either, but at least she didn't die like a fly. Sooner or later, Luciela had left, for reasons unknown.

Afterwards, Jacqueline had gotten the rank of Number 40, one of the weakest amongst the warriors. At that day, she still had the same rank. She had done all her jobs flawlessly, but was still considered as a failed experiment. To the Organization, she was good enough to go around and chop Yoma to bits. Nothing more, nothing less.

'It's a shame, truly,' her handler thought, 'to have such a woman go to waste.'

And he was right. Of course, Jacqueline did not look anything special. Though she was rather tall with being nearly two meters, she had a fragile look, like all the other warriors. However, don't judge a book by its cover. Jacqueline was neither strong nor very fast, but her fighting style had no needs for things like brawny arms or a sturdy body.

"Rubel," Jacqueline broke the silence once again, not letting her gaze leave the campfire, "that monster we were fighting back then, it killed many warriors without effort. Still, there was a sole woman, who could fight it, even though to no effect. Neerie was her name, if I remember. That monster and she clearly showed me, that there has to be way more to our world than just hunting Yoma. There has to be more... for me."

For a moment Rubel wondered about why it had taken Jacqueline that long to want to talk about that topic. However, she didn't know anything about Awakened Beings, despite she had been very close to one of the strongest of them. But still, all she had ever done was hunting Yoma or small groups of them despite being fit to go against Awakened Beings. Sadly, there weren't that many requests at that time. In addition to that, the Organization still had not acknowledged the fact that Jacqueline was more than a mere Number 40. Way more.

'They think in patterns too much," he thought. 'Failed experiment? Useless. Such stupid people.'

However, the Man in Black found it was time to tell that promising woman a bit more about the world she lived on: "I see, so you're not only using your head but letting the world know of the results sometimes, huh?"

She didn't react at all and just kept staring into the fire, having her usual empty, silver eyes and emotionless face.

"We need people like Neerie because there are monsters out there that someone like you could not handle yourself" he explained. 'Well, most likely you can,' he added in his thoughts.

That caused Jacqueline to have a short look over to him before staring at the campfire again. Mustering that man's face was futile: He always wore darkened glasses and a black hat that he had pulled deep into his face. All she could see in his face was the campfire that was reflecting in his glasses.

Knowing that Jacqueline wasn't the one to look at the people that talked to her, the man continued: "You know that when a warrior passes her limits she turns into a Yoma, right? Well, that's at least what you've been told during your training."

Already believing to have understood what her handler wanted to tell her, she answered: "I see. We are stronger than Yoma, turning into something weaker when we use our Yoki too much never made sense to me anyways. So I guess the real strong warriors amongst us are the ones that go after those who couldn't send out their Black Card soon enough. Or am I assuming to much here, Rubel?"

The man in black was not that surprised that Jacqueline was able to figure out that much herself. She was one of the sharpest warriors he had ever met after all. He found that her special ability, the excelling reading, sensing and manipulating of Yoki totally befitted her intelligence.

"When you pass your limits and lose your human mind that is what we call Awakening. The result is an insanely strong monster, called Awakened Being. Those are the ones we send the Single Digits and a few lower ranked warriors after" he affirmed the tall warriors assumption.

Just at this moment another thing came to his mind, a request that had been made just a few hours before. He considered sending Jacqueline to that job, too. He told her to meet up with him in the forest west of her current destination after her job was finished. Then he took his leave.

'It would be a shame to have this woman's potential wasted on Yoma hunting jobs forever. She either does great, like I think she will, or she dies. Either way is fine but if the former is the case she could be of use in the future' he thought while having his usual smile on his face.

###

Everyone was shivering in fear as they saw the _Silver Eyed Witch_walking towards the town's gates. They knew that they could do nothing but to rely on one of those Claymores but still they feared them due to them being half-human and half-yoma beings. They also knew that it was strictly forbidden to a Claymore to kill a human. If she would have broken that rule that would have led to her execution but still trusting them was hard.

Some of the townspeople came to the gates as soon es they heard that the _Silver Eyed Witch_ was arriving but as soon as she came too close to them they stepped back opening a path for her to pass. She already knew where her target was but was a bit surprised as he gave away his cover himself. One of the people she passed seemed not to be feared and mocked about the Organization sending a _failed experiment_.

The moment Jacqueline heard that she stopped and turned her head to the man that just spoke. The people around said man instantly got away from him because they were afraid that he'd have angered the Claymore.

"She'll kill him, she'll kill him!" they panicked.

"You're no fun," Jacqueline said to that man. "I wanted to play a bit by letting you think I didn't notice you but you killjoy just blew up your cover by using a term that a human wouldn't know. Stupid!" she complained, drew her claymore and threw it straight through the man's head before he even could react. Well, that's not quite true. He wanted to react, but something kept him from dodging.

The people panicked even more. They feared, that the _Silver Eyed Witch_ was mad and would go after them too. However, the panicking soon turned into pure surprise as they saw that the dead man's body had turned into that of a Yoma. While Jacqueline pulled out her sword of the wall it had gotten stuck in the chief of the town slowly approached her. With him he carried a bag full of Beras.

He stuttered some thanks and wanted to hand over the money, as Jacqueline while shaking the blood off of her claymore clarified to him: "I'm not taking the money. Later a suspicious looking man in black will come here to get the money. Don't give the money to the wrong person by accident. That could be disadvantageous for you."

Without saying another word Jacqueline left the town heading to the west where she would meet up with her handler.

###

She eventually met up with him about half an hour later. Rubel gave her no welcome and just asked how it went.

"I'm back unharmed" was all that the tall warrior answered.

"I see" Rubel said. "I wonder... how long are you wearing that suit of yours now? Is it already a year?"

Jacqueline gave it a little thought and then said that that was about the case. No warrior before had ever worn a suit that long without having it even scratched. Having that in mind Rubel had a chat with the elders of the Organization the day before...

###

"_Ah, Rubel, there is one more thing..." Rimuto said just before Rubel was about to leave the hall._

_He turned back around and asked, what that might be. _

"_It's about that failure you're always so proudly spouting about" the elder derogatorily commented. _

"_Oh?" the handler answered, playing the surprised one._

"_Is she dead or something?" Rimuto asked, giving reasons for his question directly afterwards: "She hasn't asked for a set of clothes or any money for a whole year."_

_Rubel just shrugged his shoulders, calmly stating that she was alive and well and that her clothing was in nearly new condition. Rimuto then asked if Rubel was about to say that she had accomplished every single job she had had that year without even getting scratched. Rubel just nodded._

###

"Great job as always, Jacqueline. I'm sorry to have to bother you with a job again, but there has been another request just recently. I thought it would be fitting you quite well. You'll go west from here to the town of Arnea. There will be warriors waiting for you. They'll explain everything else to you. Got any complaints or questions?"

Jacqueline had heard and memorized every word Rubel said. And as always, she had neither questions nor complaints. At last, it was her job to kill any being that opposed humankind. To her there was nothing wrong about that.

"Alright," she said, "since the sun hasn't set yet I'll get walking right now."

Saying not one word more she started heading west to reach her destination as soon as possible. Rubel stood there for a while, seeing the black haired warrior walk into the sunset, having just his usual smile on his face.

###

The atmosphere was tense in the town of Arnea. Two days before three Claymore had entered the town at once.

"Why so many?" the townspeople had asked each other. "Is this really necessary?" they kept asking their chief. But he just kept saying that the Organization would know what they were doing. Still, he didn't like it. Even having one of them around gave him the chills.

Then, close to noon, a fourth warrior was arriving. The mothers dragged their children into their houses, the men and women closed their doors and windows and everyone avoided getting close to the black haired warrior that had just entered the town.

Everyone was scared because rumors had spread that the Yoma due they sent the request to was not a normal Yoma but a _Voracious Eater_. That at least was the term the Organization used when talking about Awakened Beings to the public. Having had the people know that their weapons, the Claymore, would eventually turn into those monster would have been bad for business.

Although Jacqueline already knew that normal people didn't like the Organization's warriors that much it seemed to be different at that time. But to her it still was a job she had to do so she didn't really care about how everyone reacted to seeing her. Soon after she entered the town a Man in Black led her to an alley and pointed towards a door that she should enter.

Behind that door was just a small dark room with benches and a table. Around said table three other warriors were sitting.

Just after closing the door from inside Jacqueline got lectured for being late by the short-haired woman sitting at the left side of the table: "There you are finally! Making us wait for two whole days... got any explanation?"

Jacqueline didn't respond but gave cold greetings to her fellow warriors. Then she leaned against a wall and waited for the one supposed to be the leader of that party to speak up.

The warrior with braided hair who sat at the opposite of the door arose and said: "Then we are all here finally."

She directed her view towards Jacqueline and told her not to take _Short Hair_ too seriously since they had already known that the fourth warrior would arrive a little later than themselves.

Then, speaking to everyone, she said: "My name is Anna. As the Organizations number 9 I will be the leader of this party. What we will be hunting is an Awakened Being. Please tell me your names, ranks and if you have experience in fighting Awakened Beings so far. I for my self have taken part in nine Awakened Being Hunts."

So it was finally something stronger for Jacqueline to hunt. She stood totally calm and waited for the other two to introduce themselves.

The second one to speak was the short haired warrior: "Me is Maria, currently the Organization's number 19." It was hard for her to admit and she was a bit ashamed of it, but she added that her experiences in fighting Awakened Beings were being cut down in no time and therefore were to be considered zero.

The next one was the woman to the right. She seemed way too excited for the thing that they were going to do but it didn't matter much to Jacqueline.

Cheerfully the pig-tailed woman said: "I am Liara, the Organization's number 23 and I am looking forward to this job as I always do when I get to slay an Awakened Being!"

After hearing that Jacqueline was kind of disgusted and got a feeling that this warrior would be troublesome.

Since she was the only one left also Jacqueline introduced herself: "I am Jacqueline. I have not faced an Awakened Being so far. My rank in the Organization is number 40 as of now."

Everyone stood quiet, each of them for their own reasons.

Suddenly Maria started to laugh wildly: "A ha ha, they wanna get rid of ya, what? Sending an amateur to a job like this – they absolutely want ya dead! Ha ha ha!"

Liara didn't comment on that, but, having a kind of creepy smile on her face, thought, that it would be fun to _play_ with the tall one afterwards. Jacqueline just ignored Maria. At least she hadn't been cut down in no time ever. She felt that the loudmouth would get her judgement – sooner or later. And she thought that her hair was way more beautiful than the fluff that _Short Hair_ most likely considered a hairstyle.

Anna, completely ignoring Maria's childish behavior, wondered about if Jacqueline could be _that_ warrior she heard of and told the group what exactly she had heard: "Jacqueline was it, right? Just three days ago I overheard a conversation between a man in black and elder Rimuto. It was about a _failure_ who had not asked for a new suit in a year. According to the man in black's reaction to Rimuto's question said warrior had been on jobs for a whole year without getting scratched. May it be..."

Jacqueline interrupted her: "So it actually has been a whole year?"

Everyone was quiet again, even Maria had stopped laughing.

After a pause that felt like hours Anna spoke up again: "So that's how it is. We will go on the hunt tomorrow. Liara, Maria, please find a place to stay. I'm going to have a little chat with our number 40."

Even though Liara was a bit disappointed that she'd have to wait until the next day, the both of them agreed and left to room.

###

About fifteen minutes afterwards Anna and Jacqueline were standing on a field close to the town. Both of them had their blades drawn.

Anna took a deep breath and then told Jacqueline again what they were going to do: "There has to be a reason for you to finish all your jobs unharmed. The first thing I thought of after seeing your hair was that you were the one the men in black talked about. Liara and Maria most probably didn't notice because it was so dark. I want to fight you to find out why you are so successful. That will be sparring, of course."

Jacqueline said that she had no problem with that and so the two started to cross blades.

###

From afar Liara and Maria were watching Anna and Jacqueline sparring. They abandoned Anna's request to find a room because they were more interested in how crappy _Forty_ actually was. Both of them had skeptical looks on their face. Very skeptical looks.

After watching the both of them for a while Maria judged what she was seeing: "There is one thing that kinda surprises me and one thing that shocks me to the mark. The thing that's surprising me is number forty. She's really good for her rank – and her hair color! Just judging from her technique I'd say she'd be fit to be in the twenties." Liara nodded in accordance.

"But there is still the thing that shocks me to the bone. How... I mean, really, how... is someone as bad at fighting as that a Single Digit?" Liara nodded in accordance.

"With the four of us – can we even defeat an Awakened Being?" Liara nodded in accordance.

"Stop nodding every time I say something." Liara nodded in accordance.

With a really mad face Maria complained: "Author, this stops being funny." Liara nodded in accordance.

###

'What is with this woman? She may be far better than her rank makes you think but why can I barely keep up with her strength, speed and technique? I normally am far better than that! Is this her doing? Maybe... I should go to ten percent?' was what Anna was thinking.

Her opponent really puzzled her a lot since she was not getting what Jacqueline did to her. So she decided to release enough Yoki to change her eye color from silver to yellow. But that was exactly what Jacqueline had waited for: The more Yoki her opponent released the better she would be able to control her.

As the fight continued Anna more and more got why Jacqueline was able to keep up with her. Well, that was not exactly right. It was more like Jacqueline kept Anna down on her own level! Not just that, if she would have wanted to, Jacqueline could have created many chances to kill Anna. She realized that in a real battle with Jacqueline she most likely would have died.

'So,' Anna concluded, 'she's controlling my Yoki. And she is actually doing it well enough to keep us on par! And she could most likely do better... What a magnificent ability! So that is the reason why no Yoma is able to even scratch her. To expect something like that of someone whose hair has not even changed – what a rare... no, rare is not the right word... what an inimitable thing to see!'

The Single Digit thought of suddenly rising her Yoki level to heights near her limit to suddenly overpower her sparring partner. So she did and smashed Jacqueline's blade out of her hand in an instant.

The tall warrior, surprised for a moment, realized that the sparring was over and retrieved her claymore while saying: "I thought that you'd figure out how to defeat me around that time. And you should tell our spectators that you looking so weak was my doing. Otherwise they'll get scared and run away or something."

While slowly dropping her Yoki level Anna smiled at her. They both decided to go back to town. On their way they eventually met the other two and told them what was going on.

After Anna berated Maria and Liara for not finding an inn to stay as they were directed to the four of them found themselves a place to stay for the night. 'So that is what this woman is like. I was totally under her control – like a puppet is under the control of a puppet player.'

###

"I can't sense it anymore!" Anna said puzzled.

Until the day before she was able to sense the Awakened Being's presence clearly, but the day the hunt should take place it suddenly was gone. Jacqueline, who had just woken up, walked to the window Anna was standing at and asked her, what the matter was. She got told that Anna couldn't sense the Awakened Being anymore.

Jacqueline also tried to sense it and felt a very faint Yoki around five miles south of Arnea.

'Hiding won't help you against me, stupid' she thought and plainly said that the target is south of them and that she'd wait at the town's gates. She left the room to head for the gates were she was going to wait for her comrades. Anna was astounded: 'I... can't sense it. At all!'

###

The party was heading south with Jacqueline as the guide since she was the only one who could feel the target's presence. Maria whispered to Anna and asked how it came that Jacqueline wasn't the Organization's eye. Anna had no knowledge about that, but assumed that the Organization most likely didn't know about Jacqueline's abilities and just judged her by her looks – as a failure.

"It's approaching us" Jacqueline suddenly said.

The others were about to get ready for battle as Jacqueline told them not to be hasty: "It most likely thinks we haven't noticed it and that it has the moment of surprise on its side. So it's best if we act as we didn't notice it yet."

Liara was surprised about Jacqueline being such a tactician and thought that she would really be a fun opponent. After having seen her abilities in her sparring with Anna Liara got even more aroused by the curiosity of how she would do against her.

A few Minutes later a lone warrior came in sight, heading towards the party.

"It's her" Jacqueline whispered.

Maria's eyes widened and a big smile appeared on her face. "Dummy, it can't be her, that's Emily!" she joyfully said as she started to run towards her with wide open arms. "Long time no..." she cheered as suddenly a swift movement of Emily's sword cut off her left arm.

Everyone except Jacqueline was stunned. "Huh?" Emily wondered, "I wanted to split your head. Am I retarded or something?"

Before she could strike another time Jacqueline was already close to her and they started to cross blades. Anna was shocked the most because she knew who that warrior once was: A former Single Digit, Emily, the Organizations Number 6. Liara joyfully joined the battle, shouting that Jacqueline mustn't have all the fun on her own. Maria stuttered Emily's name, quietly asking why.

Jacqueline realized really fast that this fight would not be easy since their enemy was suppressing her Yoki very well. Even though she could read Emily she couldn't manipulate her like she was used to. She criticized herself for not having been able to keep Maria uninjured but was still glad that she could prevent her from dying.

Emily was a lot faster than her and Liara and therefore easily was able to dodge and parry the attacks of both of them. Suddenly Jacqueline saw a brief opening and used it to kick Emily's stomach what led to her flying away a few meters.

Liara closed in to Emily as fast as possible to use the chance Jacqueline created to kill her while the latter turned around and with a mad look shouted: "What are you fools doing? Get your asses over here!"

That got Anna back to her senses and she joined the battle as well. Maria however was not able to move and could only stare at the battle.

"Why, Emily, why?" she kept whispering to herself. She was totally desperate and started to shake. Why had her best friend turned into a monster and attacked her? Why would she have to kill her?

###

_Storms of striking claws pattered down on her like rain. This Awakened Being was different from the others, no matter how she looked at it. Two of her comrades were killed instantly, the other one lay just a few steps behind her, being unable to move. She couldn't defeat it, she was sure about that. But her senses told her, that she just had to hold out – a fellow warrior was heading towards them._

_But hell, that thing was fast. Even though she used a skill of superior speed that surpassed even that of the Top Five at that time the Awakened One was still able to cut her now and then._

_'Is... is my... Stormcutter... to slow?' she thought, not being able to comprehend it. Up until then she always was the fastest, no matter who or what she faced. She was just Rank 11, but she couldn't be that weak. That was what she told herself, but in the end it didn't help her at all. 'Hurry, dammit, hurry!' she inwardly shouted out to the warrior that was approaching them._

_The one lying behind her was Maria. It happened within a split second that she suddenly couldn't stand anymore, fell down and caught blood. She hadn't even seen what it was and the pain of getting cut her back came several seconds later due to the shock. Her vision was blurry, she could barely see what her fellow warrior Hitomi and the Awakened One were doing, not to speak of sensing the warrior who was coming closer._

_The Awakened being had grown tired of clashing with the warrior in front of her. She was fast enough to parry most of the Awakened's attacks. Most of them. One scratch after another showed up on the warrior's skin. But the Awakened Being couldn't land a serious hit so it calculated the risk of stopping its attacks for a second to launch a stronger blow._

_Faster done than thought it interrupted its storm of attacks and, suffering many hits from Hitomi's Stormcutter, made a fast dash towards her to land a good blow on her chest and pulled back immediately._

_Hitomi's attacks had stopped. Five deep wounds were on her chest, two of them damaged her right lung and one missed her hearth by a hair._

_Still holding the shaft of her sheathed claymore with her right hand her face was in shock. She knew she was defeated. Fighting like that wouldn't be possible._

_'So this is the extend of my ability. Not fast enough to keep up with her, not strong enough to defeat her. I am... despicable!'_

_She fell to her knees and then onto her right side. It was over._

###

'And then you appeared' were Maria's thoughts. 'You came... to save us. The both of us only are alive because of you. How can you... how can you...'

"HOW CAN YOU DEMAND OF ME TO KILL YOU?" were the worlds that sounded over the battlefield.

For a moment everything was quiet, every movement stopped. Something suddenly changed about Emily's attitude. Did she know that person?

But Jacqueline didn't giver her much time to think. Of the three warriors Emily was fighting she was the most persistent. Anna, too, was a formidable warrior to her. About Liara she didn't care that much. But even though the latter had a lot of openings, Emily couldn't cut her.

'That idiot.' Jacqueline thought. 'If she'd fight in a less offensive way I wouldn't have to alter that monsters movements so much. It's damn hard since she isn't emitting enough Yoki, dammit!'

Emily decided to unleash all her Yoki and turn into her awakened form: a dark blue skinned, tall succubus with long, black hair and bat wings with a span of more then six meters. Her sharp claws and both horns seemed to be excellent killing tools. Since she thought that she wouldn't need it anymore Emily throw her sword away. Now her victory was assured.

In an instant she disappeared just to reappear behind Liara and slice through her neck. But she missed her completely! Liara instantly got away from her as she noticed that she had been very lucky just then. Anna moved back from Emily, too. She hadn't seen her move just then at all.

'We could have won if she had stood in her human form... but now even Jacqueline shouldn't be able to handle that mass of Yoki...' Anna feared.

Emily wondered why she had missed. Just what was going on?

"This fight is over" Jacqueline said, leaving Anna surprised and Liara very nosy about what would happen then.

Emily turned towards the tall warrior and asked her how she came to that conclusion.

"Haven't you wondered?" Jacqueline asked, "why both of your attempts to kill didn't work the way you planned?"

Emily spat on the ground "Ts, I just had no real fight for some time. I got rusty."

Jacqueline sheathed her claymore and started to slowly walk towards Emily. The latter didn't move an inch and everyone watched with tension.

'What is going on? Why can she be so calm? Don't tell me she actually can...' Anna's thoughts got interrupted.

"I wonder about that. If I remember your Symbol correctly, you are Emily, the former number six, am I right? Shouldn't a number six be able to kill warriors in the twenties even if she had no fight for some time? I daresay that you can't even kill me, the current number 40" she closed her speech as she stopped right in front of Emily.

The latter wanted to slice through that loudmouth in front of her and started to rapidly attack with her claws. But for some reason she couldn't comprehend Jacqueline evaded every single attack by dodging. And something else felt wrong to Emily: not a single attack turned out in the way she wanted it to. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she focused, she just couldn't hit that warrior she was fighting.

Anna and Liara were astounded about how easily number 40 dodged every attack.

'Superb. Truly superb. Her skill of manipulating an opponents Yoki is something else. She, someone comparable to a warrior in the twenties, drags down an awakened Single Digit down to a level where she can dodge all of her attacks with ease. How can the Organization be so blind to rank her so lowly?' were Anna's thoughts at that time.

She said to Liara that getting involved into that battle only would break Jacqueline's concentration. "But" she added, "why isn't she using her blade? How is she planning on killing Emily without a weapon?"

Liara, who had already put away her claymore calmly said that Jacqueline was having fun, leaving a surprised Anna.

Maria had slowly gotten back to her senses and was watching from afar while reattaching her left arm. "Who is that girl?" she asked herself.

After that had continued for a while Emily suddenly stopped attacking and backed down from Jacqueline. She was shaking due to the anger that had built up insider her.

"Why?" she asked and then shouted: "Why can't I hit a number 40? Why?"

Jacqueline walked towards her again and stopped right in front of Emily.

"The reason is simple. You are weak and I am strong, that is all there is to it. I am the natural enemy of every Yoki user. There is no way for the likes of you to ever defeat me. Farewell."

It all was done in an instant: Emily still desperately tried to hit Jacqueline, but failed completely. Bit by bit she got cut down. First her left wing, then her right arm, then her right wing, then the lower part of her right leg. The move that finally made her unable to move cut open her chest and throat.

Making a dull sound her body collapsed face down to the ground. Emily ground her theeth and clenched her remaining fist, but it was over.

Jacqueline pointed the tip of her blade to Emily's neck and then looked over to Maria.

"You seem to have some sort of connection to her. Do you want to kill her yourself?"

###

In the end it was Maria who decapitated Emily who had no chance to even try to fight back because Jacqueline was still keeping her from doing something. Liara left the group as soon as the target was dead. After having seen Jacqueline's true potential she got scared of losing her life by fighting her. But she intended to get stronger – she absolutely wanted to defeat that woman back then. By that day beating Jacqueline became her goal.

After having reattached her left arm Maria buried her friend and used Emily's blade as a gravestone.

"You were close, weren't you?" Anna asked but got a silent answer. After mourning over her lost friend Maria she thanked Jacqueline for letting her kill Emily. "I won't forget this." She added with a sad smile on her face.

Anna was glad that Maria had calmed down. She also was glad that only one of her comrades got injured.

"Good work everyone" she said. "Well," she faced the tall warrior, "even though most of the work was done by you. My word may not count that much, but I will recommend you for a promotion."

Jacqueline gave her thanks and then left Maria and Anna alone, stating, that she had to meet her handler.

After she was gone Anna asked Maria, if she had noticed something about the black haired warrior. Maria didn't know what Anna could have meant.

"During the whole battle... her face nearly always remained the same. As if it was nothing."

That was the day she was first called _Blankface_.


	3. Chapter 2: Put it back

**Chapter 2 - Put it back**

"So this is how it was. I never have anticipated that someone like her could actually do something like that. Is there more to your report?"

"No, this is all there is to it."

"I see. You are dismissed then."

With those words Rimuto sent the Organization's number 9 away who left instantly. The elder truly was surprised by that warrior turning out to actually be of some use. Not only that, she took out an Awakened Single Digit on her own.

'In the end it was a wise decision to permit her in an Awakened Being hunting party' was what he was thinking.

With a short gesture he gave a signal to call that warrior in. Without detention a tall, black-haired warrior entered the hall. She stopped in front of elder Rimuto's seat, about five meters away.

"What is it you called me here for?" she asked the head of the Organization. Actually she already knew what it was because Anna had flourished her that her conversation with Rimuto went well.

Rimuto mustered the woman that close to never had any facial expression accurately. He still didn't want to believe what Anna had told him just then. But it was the same he already had heard from his scouts before. The way it was Jacqueline was a good anti warrior as well as the one with the sharpest _Eyes_ the Organization had at that moment.

"After hearing the report about the hunt on former number 6 who had awakened, I decided that you will be filling the spot she left. We may have greatly misjudged your potential."

"I appreciate it" Jacqueline answered honestly. And she really did. Even though she had never told anyone it was always draining her that she was kept at a low rank despite her great skills. "Is there anything else?" she wanted to know.

"No, you are dismissed. Everything else you will settle with Rubel. He should be waiting outside."

###

"How did it go?" Rubel asked Jacqueline after she had left the Organization's head quarter. Jacqueline stopped next to him, without looking at him.

"I am number 6 now" she blankly stated.

"I see. Feeling happy?" Rubel asked her, knowing exactly that Jacqueline would never admit something like that. However, he didn't wait for her answer because he had already gotten another job for her to take care of.

"I am sorry to have to trouble you so much, but you have to head to the southern lands. This is a dangerous job so you have to be careful and hide well. While you were on your way here elder Rimuto was already telling me about your promotion and the job that I am about to give you. I don't know if you heard of it, but before Neerie and Vanessa became number 1 and 2 the former number 1 awakened and her sister, number 2 at that time, got killed amongst half of our forces. Even if we have about an idea of how strong Luciela, the former number 1, is, we'd like to know for sure how strong she is."

The sharp warrior had no reason to think twice about what her job would be. It was obvious that the Organization wanted her to measure Luciela's strength. They most likely thought that Jacqueline with her ability could defeat Luciela.

"I wonder," she said, "why you think that me going there is necessary for that."

That made Rubel stop dead. He sure knew that Jacqueline's ability of sensing Yoki was great, but she actually was talking about sensing someone over half of the continent and even give an accurate statement on how strong she is? Even if it was her – that seemed ridiculous to him.

"Found her" Jacqueline said, surprising Rubel a lot.

"Are you telling me that you can sense her over that distance? How can you even be sure it's her and not just any other Awakened Being?"

Rubel had all right to ask that question. Jacqueline had just killed an Awakened Being for the first time in her life and then she was claiming to sense an Abyssal One over half the continent.

Jacqueline, however, was absolutely sure that she was right – she has always been up until then. So she just told Rubel that she was looking for the biggest amount of Yoki in the Southern Lands and asked him if that was the wrong thing to do. Rubel didn't know what to say for a few moments. Jacqueline took that as a no.

"Now that is something. But can you measure her strength?" he wanted to know and was curious if Jacqueline even could do that.

The black haired warrior focused on the Yoki mass that most likely was Luciela and tried to get a picture as clear as possible. Even though it felt to her like the former number 1 tried to suppress her Yoki she also could see that Luciela was not able to. She had no means of knowing the reason for that, however.

But that Yoki was something else, something Jacqueline had never felt before. She imagined what she would do if she were to fight something like that and told Rubel the results:

"It is something else. If I were to fight it, there are roughly two scenarios. The first would be me trying to control her movements as good as I can. Since the amount of Yoki she has far exceeds everything I have ever seen, including my own Yoki, that would be somewhere between very difficult and close to impossible. I am not even sure if my strength is great enough to damage her. Simply spoken, I would die. The second scenario would be me releasing as much Yoki as possible. Then I could get about half of her speed and her physical strength. However I would be completely unable to control her then. That's why I rarely use my Yoki. In her case, however, it would actually enable me to inflict damage to her. If everything were to go well about a fourth or even a third. I would die as well, however. The awakened Emily would do about a tenth of damage to her. Anna maybe a twentieth."

Rubel was astounded. That she could tell that much over such a long distance was something he had never heard of. He thanked her for her accurate measurements and told her to return to the area assigned to her to wait for further instructions.

###

After Jacqueline had left Rubel told elder Rimuto in detail what the Organization's new number 6 had scouted.

"You are kidding me, aren't you? Being able to tell that much over such a distance... can we even trust her information?" Rimuto asked Rubel disbelievingly.

Rubel was not even sure himself if Jacqueline's reading was that accurate, but just in case it was not it still was advantageous for him because according to that reading it was likely that the _Doublefingers_ – Number 1 and Number 2 – would have been able to defeat her. In other words Rubel speculated on the Organization grasping the chance to get rid of Luciela. Even though she was an Awakened Being there was no guarantee that she wouldn't become stronger gradually.

Rubel decided to just tell Rimuto that Jacqueline up until then always had done her jobs without flaws and that there would have been no reason to distrust her that time. In addition to that Jacqueline knew best about her skills.

"Jacqueline does not do things she is not capable of. Her measurements are trustworthy" he convincingly said.

###

Making dull sounds the Yoma's body parts fell to the ground one after another. He kept begging for his life but of course got completely ignored. The ground of that town's market place was soiled with the blood of four Yoma, all of them completely hacked to bits.

While shaking of the blood of her Claymore she mumbled: "This was no fun at all..."

The townspeople were shocked on the one hand by the attitude of the Claymore sent to their rescue, on the the other hand by the fact that there actually were four Yoma hiding in their town. The chief of the town, carrying a bag of Beras, carefully approached the pig tailed warrior.

While trying to hand it over to the Claymore he stuttered: "I... It's barely... enough for three. W... we don't have enough for four..."

Liara gave him a short look and then shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not taking it anyway" she said. "Later a suspicious looking man in black will come to collect the money. Be sure to have enough until then. That's all advice I can give to you."

Liara sighed and started walking towards the town's gates. Another boring job was done, and another day has been wasted on weaklings that every warrior in the forties could have taken care of. It was just not fair that the Organization's people didn't see her potential! She felt damn sure to become a Single Digit in no time if the Organization would just send her on proper jobs.

Shortly after she had passed the town's gates the sun started to set. Even if she could still have kept on walking she decided to make a fire just a few minutes after she entered the forest. It was not like there was something she had to hurry for anyways. She leaned against her claymore that she had rammed into the ground and while staring into the campfire she let her thoughts flow.

'I wonder what she is doing. Taking out an Awakened Single Digit so easily, honestly. But if even she has such a low rank as 40 it is no wonder why my rank is also just 23. Those stupid Men in Black are just unable to correctly judge someones strength. At this rate... I'll never be a Single Digit. I won't be able to keep our promise...'

###

_A sole warrior loped through a coniferous forest. A few rays of the sun that had risen just an hour before made it through all the high pine trees the forest consisted of. The pine cones that lay around on the whole forest floor spread a scent that rose the mood the warrior was in even more. A wide smile was on her face and her hearth beat strongly and fast. Her two shoulder long pig tails where bouncing to the tact of her energetic steps._

_Her excitement couldn't be greater since it was the first time for her to ever hunt an Awakened being. She had heard of them before and that they were very strong. Since she had gotten her job she was wondering about how well she could do against something way stronger than a normal Yoma. She couldn't wait to get to her destination._

_###_

_A strange sight was to be seen at the gates of Roha. The atmosphere had been tense for the few hours before since two Claymore entered the town. Then a third one was arriving but something didn't feel right about her._

_The people who had seen many Claymore in their lives noticed it right on the spot: your normal Claymore was a stiff woman with an earnest face. But that one happily jumped towards the town while giggling and laughing._

_As she had arrived and was loping through the masses a man asked the one next to him if something was wrong with that woman._

_She heard that and stopped right in front of him, scaring everyone because they feared that she would be angry then. But that was not the case._

_Joyfully Liara explained, while clapping her hands with the last words: "Oh, haven't you heard? We're hunting an Awakened Being this time, it's so exiting. Isn't that wonderful?"_

"_An Awakened Being?" the crowd mumbled. "What's that?"_

_Of course they didn't know since they weren't supposed to ever hear that term. To them, when talking about Awakened Beings, the Organization only used the vocable Voracious Eater._

_A man in black showed up, pinched her ear and started pulling the warrior, who protested heavily, away, while stating, that she was still a newbie and mixed up two terms and that she actually meant to say Voracious Eater._

_Suddenly the whole crowd was silent._

_###_

_After entering a room in a dark alley, Orsay slammed the door behind him. He sat down on one of the benches and put Liara, who was still protesting, over his knee and started spanking her, completely ignoring the fact that two other warriors already were present._

_While doing so he lectured Liara: "How often do I have to tell you that you have to keep your damn trap shut if you can't keep secret stuff to yourself? Honestly, we'll be screwed if such terms become known widely! You always keep causing me trouble, dammit!"_

_After he finished lecturing her he let go of her and left, mumbling something incomprehensible._

_Liara was on her knees and had teardrops in her eyes due to the embarrassment she just had to endure. While rubbing her butt she complained that she wouldn't be able to sit for a whole week. Still she carefully tried to sit down and eventually managed to do so while grimacing with pain._

_Her face was red as a tomato. She had put her hands between her legs and kept staring onto the ground. An awkward silence filled the room._

_The warrior left to her with her long wavy hair tried hard to hold back her laughter. It was hard for her but she managed somehow. At the opposite of where Liara was sitting ashamed of herself there sat another warrior who had straight combed back hair that nearly reached to her bottom. She also tried hard to not laugh but suddenly couldn't hold it anymore._

_She broke out in laughter that could be heard outside of the room. She apologized over and over again while laughing but she just couldn't stop. That also caused the other one to join in._

_At first Liara wanted for the ground to swallow her but after a while, for no reason she could understand at that moment, she started laughing, too._

_###_

A sad smile appeared on her face: "After that job we were best friends and promised each other that we, some day, would meet again as the top three. You had numbers 1 and 2 already, though."

That last part made her laugh a bit, but still it was sad as it was. If her life was to continue on like that forever she'd most likely never become even a Single Digit, not to speak of number 3.

She got startled and blushed as suddenly her handler gave her a greeting. While she was regaining her breath he asked her if she was thinking about the old times again.

"Ts," she sizzled while folding her arms and looking away, "that's none of your business! And I won't forgive you for that, never ever!"

"I see" was the answer she got from him. "But teaching you a lesson in front of them greatly changed you. For the better, if I may say."

Liara just kept looking away, making a _kiss-my-ass-face_.

Orsay looked at her for a bit and then sat down, leaning against a tree in the same fashion Liara used to lean against her Claymore: cross-legged while having her arms fold.

Liara looked at him out of the corner of her eye and asked: "Why do you still do that in front of me? I heard that you stopped doing that when being with other warriors a long time ago."

"He he, why do you care? We're close friends after all" he sad with a wide grin, adding, that it would have been nice of her to face his direction.

Sighing Liara did so but her face still suggested that she was not in the best mood. She complained to him that, if he actually were a close friend of hers, he'd send her on jobs that would have made it possible for her to improve and actually have the chance to climb up the ladder.

Taking a close look at his friend he was absolutely sure that he could lift her mood a bit. It had been some time that the Organization were to send warriors after someone not due to an request. However, he had fun tantalizing Liara a bit.

"Well, you heard about that black haired warrior, number 40? You were on a hunt together a few moths ago."

That words got Liara's full attention. She could remember her very well. She was the one to take out an awakened Single Digit completely on her own. Liara had come to admire that person. Her urge to defeat that woman was still there, but she knew that she still had a long way to even dream of that.

Orsay, aware of the fact that he had Liara's attention, continued: "I see, you remember that brat. She actually took out Emily on her own. Even her handler, who knew her best, was surprised. However, she got a big _bonbon_ for that..."

Liara looked into Orsay's eyes then. Was it what she thought it was?

"However, after Emily awakened there was a spot to fill. And now guess who got it..." he said while having a catty grin on his face.

Liara was shocked and that clearly could be seen in her facial expression. "You... you mean... that _she_ is number 6 now?"

The answer she had gotten was silent. She had figured out the exact right thing. She looked onto the ground in resentment. Her teeth started to grind and her fists clenched without her really noticing.

"That spoiled brat" she growled. "Just because she has some special skill. That's no fair, dammit!"

"Want to meet her again?" Orsay suddenly asked.

In an instant Liara's resentment was gone and she looked at her handler again. "Meet her... again?"

The Man in Black absolutely knew his friend. He knew that it was be easy to bait her. Playing with her for a bit was fun to him, as always. But then it was finally time to tell her what he had planned to:

"She just recently scouted a group of three Awakened Ones."

Three? Now that was rare! Liara's hearth was filling with hope that she'd be in the party to hunt these.

"To be honest, there is a reason why you had no chance to go against an Awakened One for so long. It is because," he made a stage wait, "Jacqueline can easily finish one or two of them on her own."

That was not that much of a surprise to the pig tailed warrior, she had seen already that even an Awakened Single Digit was no problem to that black haired woman. However, it didn't feel right to her that she was the one to get all the Awakened Ones.

Her eyes wandered to the ground just to meet the eyes of her handler again. Then she asked: "So that group... I am going to hunt them together with her?"

Orsay nodded. He arose and told her where to meet with Jacqueline – it was the plateau fifty miles to the South and that she was already waiting there to observe the Awakened Ones.

Liara honestly thanked him for that opportunity.

Orsay suddenly stopped, because something had just then crossed his mind: "Two of the Awakened Beings had a higher rank than you. Do your best" he finished and left.

Liara, joyfully saluting, shouted: "Yes sir!"

###

She had left right away. Even though it was already dark she hadn't thought about sleeping because she had been so excited.

Orsay had decided to go back to the campfire for a moment to watch his favorite warrior enthusiastically rush away. A rather casual smile was on his face while doing that.

"You really love her, don't you?" a male voice from behind him said.

"That's none of your business" Orsay answered.

"He he, no need to be shy. She resembles her a lot after all."

A short period of silence followed.

"What are you here for?"

"Just pure coincidence."

"What do you think, will they get along?"

"Who knows. Like I know her she will feel bothered by Liara."

"Most likely."

"However, outer circumstance have more influence on people than themselves. And since Liara is aiming for number three, being with a _that_ woman won't hurt her, most likely."

"Most likely."

###

The sun was already setting as a lone warrior walked the simple road that led to the town of Arnea. After she had finished her latest job she finally got some free time on her hands. However, she was not there to enjoy herself. It was rare for a warrior to enjoy herself at that time to begin with. She was looking for something that used to belong to an old fried of hers.

That was not entirely true, however. There had been rumors of that friend passing away but she didn't want to believe them. It was more like her wanting to see with her own eyes if she was dead or still living. However, even though she already had reconciled herself with that warriors death she still wanted to see her grave to at least have something assimilable to saying good bye.

As she kept on walking suddenly four black shades came in sight, Organization's men, as the warrior could tell. It gave the impression of them digging the ground for some reason.

As she came closer to them she suddenly spotted a claymore lying just beneath them. At first glance she could tell whose symbol was engraved on the blade and therefore who it belonged to.

She stopped just a few meters away from them, being noticed but ignored. She felt anger building up inside of her: her blood pressure and pulse started to rise, her head felt hot and her ears and face turned into a pale but visible red. Without even realizing it she had released enough Yoki to alter her eye color from silver into a menacingly gleaming yellow.

"Damn those warriors," one of the men defiling the grave angrily complained, "why did they have to bury that monster?"

"You're absolutely right, they're giving us nothing but trouble" another one remarked enervated. He took up an arm of the awakened warriors body and straightened up. "Finally" he said while triumphantly upholding the pretty heavy arm that was nearly as long as he was high.

"Put it back" a threateningly deep voice said.

The other men stopped digging, straightened up as well and the four of them made a few steps towards the warrior who apparently was about to cut down the men in front of her any second. The one holding the arm shouldered it to make it easier to carry.

After they stopped just a meter in front of the silver eyed woman the one carrying the arm plainly said "No, we won't."

"Put. It. Back." she said in a similar manner as before, just louder.

"Or what?" another man asked.

"I owe my life to the woman whose grave you are defiling here. If I have to do something to protect her that leads to me dying, that is, no matter if she awakened or is dead already, totally fine" she stated rather calmly despite boiling in the inside.

The four Men in Black's confident expressions melted away as the abradant sound of a blade being drawn filled the air.

"I am going to make this clear," the warrior hissed, "you either put it back this instant or I will turn you into a sea of blood and minced meat."

The men were stunned. Did she mean it? That face of hers was absolutely serious and she even had released some of her Yoki what normally wouldn't have been necessary for her to fight humans, even if they were from the Organizations retrieval squad.

"Fine" the man who had shouldered the Awakened Being's arm said after having taken a deep breath. A blunt sound was to be heard as he let the arm fall to the ground. "We'll let her body here for now. But don't you think that you will get away with that without consequences!" he threatened her.

After having let them leave the warrior fixed up the grave of her friend and silently shed a few tears while standing at her grave, being enwrapped in her thoughts.

After having calmed down completely she impaled her claymore into the ground, sat down and leaned her back against it. There she was staying to protect her dead friends grave from whoever dared to open it.

The sun had completely set and the only sound to be heard was the wind that kept blowing over the strands of the straight hair of that lone warrior.


	4. Chapter 3: Killing a friend

**Chapter 3 - Killing a friend is better than letting her suffer**

Everything around her was raven darkness. Only a few lights, some smaller, some bigger, were seen by her, most of them many miles away. There also was a very bright but small light exactly where she was standing but it couldn't distract her. The ones interesting to her were on the one hand three mid sized lights that were about as bright as a full moon and on the other hand a small but yet brighter light as the other three, even though its intensity could not be compared to the light that was where she stood.

The smaller light that was behind her and moved towards her at a good speed she recognized as the one she was waiting for. The three lights around six miles away in the direction she was facing weren't moving at all.

Drops started to fall from the sky whose gray color had long suggested that it was about to rain. As the rain grew stronger the cracked soil beneath the black haired warriors feet thankfully absorbed every last drop of rain.

The warriors black hair was combed back and bound into a ponytail whose tip reached down to the woman's lower back. It soon was completely soaked and steady flow of water flew down from the pony tail's tip. Her puppet like face was also completely wet as one drop after another ran down her forehead and her cheeks.

The sound coming from the rain pouring onto her greyish pauldrons could barely be heard due to the far louder patter of the rain onto the soil that had started to become muddy. The silver eyed warrior thought about running through that mud and how she'd look afterwards with loathing.

She got a clearer view of that as she opened her eyes to recognize the roughly two heads smaller warrior that had just arrived. She was completely soaked as well and already had her metal boots and the legs of her skin tight, light gray cloth armor sullied with mud of the plain that reached nearly as far as the eye could see. Because of the rain the normally pale blonde color of her hair had turned much darker.

A wide smile was still on her face that gave the impression of a girl in her early teens despite her being 19 years of age already.

Turning her face to the right to meet with the much taller warrior's eyes she happily greeted her: "Nice to meet again. Sorry for being late!"

"No need to apologize," Jacqueline blankly stated, "I already knew that you would be coming a bit later. Liara, was it?"

Liara enthusiastically nodded. Although she intensely envied Jacqueline for her promotion and even was a bit mad about her having a special ability at hand and thought this was no fair she nevertheless felt excited and very happy to be able to go on a hunt together with such a strong person.

"You can count on me, I will do my very best!"

After a short pause the black haired woman answered: "I appreciate it. We are up against three Awakened Beings here. None of them was Single Digit and their Yoki are nothing out of the ordinary, still handling all three of them would be rather though for me. I have to be able to completely rely on you."

Saluting energetically she called out: "Yes, ma'am!"

Jacqueline closed her eyes yet again and so did Liara.

"Can you sense them from here?" Jacqueline's deep voice asked.

Liara tried her best and soon saw three lights which she thought to roughly be five miles away. "Not as clearly as I'd like to, but yes" she stated.

"Very well," Jacqueline initiated her explanation, "our targets are, from the left to the right, former number 18, former number 31 and former number 20. They awakened during an Awakened Being hunt. They managed to kill their target but afterwards turned against their captain, former number 8, and killed her."

That last sentence got Liara's peculiar attention since Jacqueline had just stated that there most likely was the spot of a Single Digit to fill.

The tall warrior resumed: "Even though their Yokis are at about the same level former number 31 will most likely be the easiest to deal with. She will be the first to fall. Who is going to be second we will decide after we have gotten there. I will deal with restraining their movements as much as possible. Since there are three of them that will be difficult, so you have to finish off former 31 as fast as possible. To ensure that I want you to completely hide your Yoki for now, then follow me around hundred meters behind so they don't notice you on the spot. As soon as I got them distracted you will rise your Yoki as far as possible to go for former number 31's head. After that I can assist you in fighting, if necessary, but I'd rather focus completely on controlling them. Any questions or objections?"

The smaller warrior had wanted to play with the Awakened Beings for a bit, she felt directly aiming for the head was no fun. Be it how it may, Liara heard the earnest tone in Jacqueline's voice as she told her to kill off the first target without delay.

Drawing her claymore she tightly stated that she is going to do how she was told without fail. She took a deep breath, sealed off her Yoki as good as she could and then told her captain that she was ready.

Jacqueline recognized that Liara's Yoki had not lost it's brightness but that it was no bigger than a star in the night's sky. She also drew her sword.

"Here we go!" she said with an honest voice and started rushing towards their targets.

###

"Reporting in!" the completely dressed in black member of the retrieval squad who had just appeared next to Dae, the head of the Organization's retrieval squad.

"I see, I see" he answered. He also was completely dressed in black, but unlike the members of the retrieval squad who wore cloth trousers and tunics that allowed them to be agile Dae had put on a black cloak that covered all but his face and hands.

"So, where is it then?" he said, looking around with his scary face that was missing the skin on nearly the whole left side, exposing his teeth and his left eyeball.

"We encountered a problem" the man honestly said.

"Huh?" Dae answered, making a surprised face.

"A warrior ran into us while we were about to take the corpse. However, by threatening our lives she forced us to retreat and leave it there" he reported.

"I see." For a moment Dae wondered why a warrior would care about the corpse of an Awakened Being but then it came to his mind suddenly.

###

Her three targets extended their fingers to impale Jacqueline with them just like they were spears, but most of them missed completely. However, a few actually missed the tall warrior by a hair. Dealing with three of them really was as though as she had predicted.

While dodging, parrying and jumping around she asked herself what _that girl_ was doing. In exact the same moment she felt a really big, nearly dangerous burst of Yoki and like a flash a feminine figure with pigtails dashed past her, took a jump and literally shot through the chest of former number 31, who, yelling "Shit!" collapsed.

'Finally!' Jacqueline thought shortly before she felt a scratch appear on her cheek. That sudden outburst of Liara's Yoki just then hazed Jacqueline's senses enough to actually let her be glanced by a hit. She didn't think about it much and focused back on her targets.

One of them, however, had decided to go after the "shitty brat" that had just taken out her former comrade.

They were in trouble then. Liara's Yoki outburst had a far worse impact than it seemed at first glance. Jacqueline's field of vision suddenly was ambiguous, she couldn't hear well and her legs were shaky. She could barely even evade her own opponents attacks, not to think about helping out Liara.

Zigzagging around like a hare on the run Liara was able to avoid all her opponents attacks but she nearly fell a few times. She knew exactly that that would be her death, so she had to kill her enemy instantly. That was easier said than done, however. She did a good job on not letting the pig tailed warrior get close.

Then it happened, she slipped and uncontrollably slid towards her opponent. Good for her was, however, that the Awakened One actually was more surprised than herself and so she by chance created an opening for her to take action and while sliding through her puzzled enemy's legs she managed to cut one of its feet off making the monster collapse on one knee.

Without hesitation, after finding a bit of solid ground, she jumped onto the monsters back and impaled her blade from its back through its chest without letting her enemy have a proper chance to react. Making two steps up the Awakened's back she sliced its chest, throat and head into two. The huge body fell into the mud as Liara jumped off its back to aid Jacqueline.

That was not necessary in the end; Jacqueline was completely back to her senses and bit by bit her opponent's body fell apart. However, she offered Liara to take the monster's head who thankfully accepted.

After having finished their job the both of them looked at each other from top to toe: Liara was completely covered in mud and so was the lower half of Jacqueline's body.

"Honestly," Jacqueline sighed while seeing the mess her suit was in, "I have worn that suit for about sixteen months now and didn't even get a scratch. Now I will have to ask for a new one since this one here is ruined."

"Too bad," the short warrior sympathized her, "but," she smiled friendly, "I always will know that you still didn't get scratched!"

Suddenly Jacqueline had to smile faintly, until the scratch on her right cheek popped into her mind and regaining her usual poker face she turned her face right a little so Liara wouldn't note the small wound.

"Scarface," Liara giggled and then broke out in sheer laughter.

'Has she seen it?' the black haired warrior thought while blushing a bit. In hectic she laid her right hand onto her cheek to cover the scratch. She used a little Yoki to heal it completely in no time what her comrade of course noticed making her laughter not quieter.

After she eventually was able to get her laughter under control and catch her breath again she assured Jacqueline that she wouldn't tell anyone and honestly meant it. Jacqueline, kind of relieved, thanked her for that and for her being a great help against the three Awakened Beings.

"Without your help I may have died," she truthfully admitted.

After shaking hands both of them left, Liara to the west, Jacqueline to the east, each of them to meet up with their respective handler. The rain was still pouring down.

###

The weather finally had calmed down. Jacqueline was, however, unable to find any dry firewood and hence had to forgo the warmth of a campfire. She had found herself a small cave beneath a small cliff were the rain hadn't gotten into.

Rattling sound as well as blunt ones hollowed in the small cave as the tall warrior was taking of her pauldrons, bracers, boots and her belt to which rhombic steel plates were attached to protect her lower body and just let them fall next to her.

After having impaled her claymore into the sturdy ground she leaned against it as she always did. She never found out the reason why this was the most comfortable position for her to rest, wait and sleep in and from time to time the tall woman wondered about if she was the only one who had that quirk.

The sun had just begun to set and shone directly into the hole that Jacqueline was resting in. She couldn't help but to stare into the sun. She was not aware of the fact that she didn't miss the warmth of a campfire but to stare into it. It was comforting her a lot although she had no idea why.

"He, I may be senile," she chuckled.

After waiting for her handler there for a while she decided to close her eyes for a bit since he hadn't came then. Before she knew she had fallen asleep.

The way she was at that moment, as peacefully as she looked, no one would have ever thought that she was a woman whose sole life purpose was wandering around in order to find and kill the monsters called Yoma, the enemies of humankind.

###

_Everything was dark. There was nothing, just a bright light not bigger than a star in the night's sky. Everything else was pitch black. Not even the slightest trace of anything else but the small and bright light was there, all on it's own._

_Suddenly other lights began to appear in some distance, one after another popped up. Some brighter, some fainter, some smaller, some larger. That went on for a while until there were more than five-thousand lights to be seen. They roughly had formed a cross._

_Five lights caught the former sole light's attention. One of them was small as a star in the night's sky and far brighter than the sun, it seemed as if it was quarreling with another light that was far bigger but couldn't match the luminance of the one it was fighting. Close by there were three other lights that were only slightly more lucid than the moon and also had about it's size. They seemed to be totally fraught._

_Without warning the brightest light suddenly grew to half of the size of the biggest one and due to it's beautiful brightness nearly swallowed up the lights around it just to soon return to it's original size._

_The big one was stirred up to the core and gave the impression of being about to explode at any second. And then the bright one disappeared completely. The size of the already big one grew by a lot again and for some reason it calmed down to only being a bit wavy._

_Then two of the other lights vanished completely in an instant and another one shrunk to the size of a mere dot. It suddenly was so small that even though it was quite bright it could barely be seen anymore. Then the really big light started moving away._

###

The sun had long set as Jacqueline awoke. Her eyes were still closed, but she could hear the crackling and feel the warmth of a fire that had to be close by. She slowly opened her eyes, yawned and stretched herself out.

"Awake already?" a male voice asked as she was scratching her stomach while blinking a few times to get the sleep out of her face. She directed her gaze towards the man who had just spoken up to notice that she had met him before.

From her point of view right of the fire there was sitting a man who wore nothing more than a black cloak with a hood that he had pulled so far over his head that Jacqueline could only see his face due to the fire that was burning inside of the cave. It was angular and seemed to belong to a man in his late twenties or his early thirties.

"Did you make the fire?" Jacqueline asked him scarcely after having found to her usual blank expression again.

Orsay turned his gaze to the fire again, throwing a few sticks into it to keep it burning. "Was quite the task to get wet wood burning," he replied. "Consider it thanks for letting her accompany you today."

Suddenly Jacqueline noticed a package to her left. She palpated it for a brief moment and then, after turning to Orsay again, asked: "How did you know?"

"Humph," he huffed, "she told me of course. Look at you! It's disgraceful for every warrior."

What he said was true: the legs and lower part of her suit were covered in mud. In addition to that the clothing still was wet and even though warriors like her were very unlikely to get ill it still was uncomfortable wearing wet clothes, so Jacqueline decided to change.

Kneeling, since the hollow wasn't high enough for her to stand, she unzipped the upper part of her body suit and was about to slip out of the sleeves, having her chest and belly completely exposed, as she noticed the Man in Black's gaze.

"You mind?" she asked, feeling a bit guilty for not doing so before starting to change.

"You mind?" he scarcely replied.

After having completely undressed she pulled out her claymore of the ground just to impale it into it again, a meter away from the fire that Orsay had made beforehand. Nude as she was she leaned against her loyal blade again. She was still wet and therefore decided to use the campfire's warmth to get dry.

Like this some time passed by after Jacqueline, staring into the fire as usual, spoke up again: "Have you just come her to give me a new set of clothes or is there something else?"

Gazing into the fire, too, he answered: "Well, yes. Actually there are two more things. At first, Rubel is on urgent business and therefore sends his regrets, but there is another job waiting for you."

"And that job might be?"

"It is about number 11, Hitomi. She is, for a reason unknown to me, keeping the retrieval squad from obtaining a certain sample of a fallen Awakened Being. You are to stop her from doing so. Use force, if necessary you may even kill her."

'Killing a fellow warrior, huh?' were her thoughts. She had always thought that she would never want to do something like that but at that moment, as she finally was ordered to do so, if necessary, she didn't feel the least bit concerned about it.

"I understand," she confirmed having received and understood her orders. "And the other thing would be?"

The man in Black pulled a black envelope out of his cloak that abruptly had the woman's attention. He handed it over to her and she, with faint signs of amazement took the black card. She opened it just to see a familiar symbol that made her stop short.

"She?" Jacqueline asked more herself than Orsay in surprise, "why should she want to die by my hands? We've only met once..."

The man shrugged his shoulders: "Who knows. You don't need to hurry, however. She ensured me that she is not close to awakening or anything."

That puzzled Jacqueline even more: "Why would she send out her Black Card in the first place, then?"

Orsay did not know the answer, either. He just told her that she was waiting about twenty miles east of the town of Arnea, on a wide grassland called the Green Sea by the people living around there. He also told her that her target, Hitomi, was five miles south of Arnea.

That brought back memories of the day when she defeated Emily. If she recalled it correctly it was around there.

"Protecting the grave of a dead comrade, huh..." she flimsily whispered to herself while having a kind of sad smile on her face.

The Man in Black heard her whispering something but he couldn't understand it. "Something the matter?" he asked, even though he didn't really care.

"Nah" was the answer he got.

Having put up her poker face again she decided, since she finally was dry, to slip into her new set of clothes. While she did so Orsay asked her how Liara had done during the Awakened Being hunt.

"To be honest," she honestly stated, after she had finished dressing, "it was good to have her around. Not only did she teach me something about myself, she also kind of saved me." Giggling a bit she added: "And since you were nearly begging me to take her, some of the credits also go to you."

A faint but visible smile was on his face for a short moment. "You, our great invincible super talent got your ass saved by a mere number 23?" he said, trying to spur her a bit.

"My sarcasm detector is knocking out," she said with a monotone voice while giving him a look. "However," she continued, "my plan had a little flaw. Said flaw was Liara having a pretty big Yoki slumbering inside of her. I sorely noticed that when she got to fifty percent as I had told her and suddenly all my senses hazed. However, she then took good care of former number 31 and former number 18. The other one I cut down my self and let her decapitate it, as thanks, you could say."

Orsay was visibly pleased with what he had heard. He was close to sure that elder Rimuto would approve of a promotion the way things went. He felt happy inside for his favorite warrior.

That way they kept sitting there for a while, occasionally exchanging a few words about all the world and his wife.

###

As she left the forest a hilly land of grass came into sight. Dark clouds, brought by the adipose wind that made every last blade of grass bent, were threateningly hanging in the sky, ready to burst at any moment. The bending grass looked like waves on the green grassland.

"The Green Sea, huh?" she whispered, admiring the beauty before her. For a moment she was just standing there, watched the waving grass and let the wind play with her ponytail. But then, however, her duty there came to her mind.

She could already sense the warrior who had requested to be killed by her. The closer she came, the more her feelings started to mix up. At first she wasn't the least bit concerned about killing a warrior, even though she had always thought that she could never do something like that. But at that moment she had that queasy feeling in her stomach and her heart was beating irregularly.

What would she say? What would _she_ say? The black haired warrior didn't want to do it. But what else choice did she have?

Then a warrior, about one head shorter than Jacqueline, with hair so short you could have called it fluff was standing in the midst of the field. Her claymore was impaled into the ground and her left hand rested on its hilt.

Their eyes had already met when Jacqueline still was around fifty meters away from her comrade. As she got closer she could see the melancholic face of the short haired woman. Whatever her reason for sending out the _Black Card_ was, Jacqueline was sure to find that out very soon.

She stopped just a few meters in front of her as she could finally see the condition her comrade was in: she had lost kind of some weight, to call her skinny would have been a litotes. The black haired warrior could also see tear marks beneath her doleful eyes. Her suit was covered in blood and had many cuts all over it. Even her sword had marks of dried blood on it. It was red.

'Don't tell me...' Jacqueline started to think but was interrupted by Maria:

"Ah, you are finally here. It took you some time, what kept you?"

"Most likely the fact that I didn't want to come here in the first place" she truthfully answered. She pulled out the black envelope and, holding it before Maria's face, asked: "What is the meaning of this?"

Maria took it and watched it for a bit. Then she tore it to pieces, startling the taller woman.

"You already know what I want you to do, so we don't need it anymore, do we?" she asked.

Jacqueline hesitated, feeling the neither avoidable nor acceptable coming closer. She mustered the woman standing in front of her closely. Most of her wounds seemed to have been inflicted to her by Yoma, but there were also cuts of a blade, especially on her lower arms. That woman absolutely wanted to die but couldn't bring herself to end it herself. That was the truth that Jacqueline didn't want to be true.

"Why are you hesitating? Please, I don't want it any..."

She got cut of by a strong fist hitting her face. The impact knocked her onto the ground. She neither complained about the pain nor did she show any sings of it. She plainly got back up and asked if this was to bring her back to her senses.

A sole tear was slowly rolling down Jacqueline's blank face, as she, having faint signs of sniveling in her voice, asked: "But why? Why don't you want to live anymore?"

"Since Emily has died... the pain it caused drained my life force away. It took my ability to be joyful, to curse and to laugh, to sleep and to eat or to just think of something to distract me from all my negative thoughts. Whenever I think about the short time I had been grated to spend with her, I start to cry. I may have acted though on the outside and like nothing could ever touch me, but her death is something I just can't cope with, no matter how hard I try."

Maria directed her view towards Jacqueline to expose a face that made her feel cut to the quick. Not only was it overrun by tears but also the melancholy was gone. It had been replaced by a pain so great that even she could feel it.

"So please..." Maria sobbed, "please, just kill me! I can't take it anymore!"

With those last words she fell to her knees and heavily started to cry while digging her face into her hands.

Jacqueline felt so hurt inside by her fellow warriors despair and could well imagine that it had to be far worse for herself. She eventually started to cry, too. She tried to comfort her comrade but all efforts were in vain. So in the end she had to do what she had to do.

From that day on there was another small hill in the grassland that was called the Green Sea. A sword was impaled into the ground next to the small hill. For a long time a sole black haired warrior came to visit that place once a year around June 17th, the day that Maria had lost her life.

###

While walking the road South from Arnea Jacqueline was still thinking about what happened on the Green Sea. She felt guilty for not having been able to help the broken soul there. She couldn't help herself but thinking, that it was her fault. If she would have killed Emily herself, then Maybe Maria wouldn't have had that much remorse. She may even have focused her hate onto Jacqueline and not herself.

'Also,' she thought, 'what she told me about that Liara woman...'

Her emotions were stirred up like never before. 'Sad but true,' she thought, while sadly smiling, 'I'm the same as her. I always act cold and like nothing could ever touch me... and now, I have to look totally wretched. Even the people in that town... they weren't scared like usual. They pitied me.'

That was not the only thing in her mind, however. There was still her actual job and she pleaded inwardly to be able to solve that matter with words rather than having to kill another warrior.

###

It was silent as always, only two people could be heard, speaking alternately. One of them was Orsay, giving a report about The Awakened Being hunt Liara and Jacqueline attended together and the other one was elder Rimuto, mostly listening and posing a question every now and then.

"So in the end," the man who had pulled his black hood deep into his face, finished his report: "Liara has taken out one Awakened Being with Jacqueline's assistance and one entirely on her own. The other one was killed by _Blankface_ herself. She claimed, that, without Liara's assistance, she may have died. Therefore I think it is appropriate to reward Liara for her effort and success."

"I see," the Organization's chief answered, "and do you think this will ally her thirst for being promoted for a while?"

Orsay found his view some empty space to think about how to answer that question best and then fund Rimuto's view again to reply: "I would not bet on that. She's aiming for number three after all and still has a far way to go to get there. I propound to send her on jobs with escalating difficulty and risk. Then there are mainly two things that can happen: She does great and reaches her rank or she screws up and dies."

After a short pause Rimuto answered on his part: "For you to say that so calmly... well, however. Judging from what she was able to accomplish I think it is save to promote her to Rank 13. You are dismissed."

Not saying another word Orsay turned around and left the hall, a rather casual smile on his angular face. While leaving the hall he was passed by a small warrior, a trainee, as he had figured, with straight blonde hair, having two braids in front to frame her face and two braids in the back that were engulfed into a ponytail. She was accompanied by a man in black who wore black cloth trousers and a black cloth waistcoat as well as a black headscarf that covered his left eye. Some shriveled fleshed peered beneath the headscarf so he most likely wore it to hide a scar.

The both of them entered the hall and walked towards its center, stopping there.

Rimuto as well as the other Men in Black mustered the girl who seemed to be around thirteen of age closely. She didn't look anything special in her greyish trainees uniform and the sword on her back looked kinda out of place since it was nearly as long as she was tall.

Then Rimuto directed his eyes towards the man who had brought the girl in and asked: "So she is the only one who passed the test this time, Marco? What a pity, we need warriors so badly..."

Before the man who brought the little warrior into the hall could say anything, the girl herself chimed in: "It's their own fault for being dead now! I told them over and over that this is no 5 vs 5 but a 1 vs 10 battle, but did anyone listen to me? No, they kept ignoring me, so I didn't help them as the Yoma attacked."

All the Men in Black were gobsmacked, even Rimuto didn't know what to say for a moment. Marco gave the warrior a rap on the head for being cheeky. She rubbed her aching head and told him that he's a meanie.

That moment had a bit of awkwardness to it, but Rimuto broke it: "He, pretty big mouth that you have got there, little miss. What is your name?"

The former trainee enthusiastically shouted: "I am Hysteria, at your service!"

"Ah, I see" Rimuto answered. "I've been waiting for you to finish your training. We need promising people like you badly. From today on you are our Number eight, even though I doubt that it will take you long to climb higher."

The girl saluted and plainly stated: "I will do my best and more!"


	5. Chapter 4: Backstabbing Liara

**Chapter 4 – Backstabbing Liara**

"How often do I have to tell you that you don't need to do that?" she asked the young man who had just brought her some bread and fruits.

"You know, sis," he explained while handing her an apple, "if you don't eat regularly your health will suffer."

She took the apple sighing and took a bite. Even though she complained every time that man came she actually enjoyed having a bit of company. But it was not only that, she even more liked the fact that he wasn't scared of her like all the other people were. A few days after she had started protecting her friend's grave he came by by coincidence and since then had been visiting her every day to bring some food for her.

'What a naive boy,' she thought while enjoying the apple she had just been given. Surely she didn't mind him being around but she didn't want him to get attached to her in some way either. She knew that – sooner or later – a warrior would come to dispose of her. After all she had threatened Organization's people and kept them from their duties. Actually she could already feel another warrior's presence.

The man had taken an apple, too. In his big, rough hands the apple looked out of place. He had told her that he was the son of a blacksmith and that he was the one to inherit his _old man's_ business. His bald head and the brown robe that he was wearing made him look like a monk rather than a blacksmith but the warrior had learned that judging a person by his or her appearance might be a fatal mistake. Even his face looked so calm and plain that she had never thought of him being a blacksmith but he knew quite a lot about forging. If anything that was the topic he told her about the most. In exchange she told him about her _adventures_, like he used to name her jobs.

After she had finished eating her apple she asked him: "Why is it that you started visiting me every day, anyhow?"

While offering her a piece of bread he answered smiling: "Well, this place seemed to me like a grave. I thought that there might be some reason for you to stay here and that you can't leave this place as you please. So I thought that I could support you by at least bringing you something to eat every day so you don't have to starve."

That one made her smile for a bit. 'I don't even need food' she thought shortly before the approaching Yoki distracted her again. She had not felt it before but she knew that, whoever was coming after her, was no small fry. The Organization's people knew what they were doing, after all. She couldn't judge that warrior's strength well due to her Yoki sensing abilities being, to put it nicely, crap. Her fallen friend once said to her: "Even a brick can judge a Yoma's strength better, than you."

'How right she was...' were her thoughts.

"You seem a bit off today," the man's voice told her. "Is something the matter?"

Smiling again, Hitomi arose and replied to him: "This might be the last day you have to bring food for me."

The man was puzzled by the warrior's statement: "What... do you mean?"

Directing her view to the right she calmly stated: "She is coming."

The figure of a skinned, tall warrior came in sight. Unlike the other warriors her hair was raven. She had a calm, empty face and was slowly approaching her target, _Soundcutter_ Hitomi.

"And of all warriors..." Hitomi stated with a low voice and a kind of annoyed face, "it has to be _her_."

The young blacksmith then turned his head to look in the same direction as Hitomi did. As she was coming closer he noticed the things that Hitomi had already seen as the black haired warrior still was some hundred meters away: her blank face that made her look like a puppet, her height that was equal to the young man's height and her beautiful, raven hair that she always wore combed back and bound into a long ponytail.

"Another warrior..." he said with an anxious voice.

A few meters away Jacqueline stopped to face Hitomi: "I am here by orders of the Organization. I am number 6, Jacqueline. I have been ordered to keep you from protecting this grave."

"Ts," Hitomi fizzled, "what a polite way to inform a warrior of her impending execution."

"Execution?" the man said puzzled. He stepped in front of Hitomi, facing Jacqueline's direction. "What's the meaning of this?" he shouted at her.

Hitomi protested at that but got ignored and just a moment later found herself astonished about why she cared about the young man exposing himself to danger.

"Huh? Execution? I can't remember to have that said," the warrior that towered over Hitomi by one and a half heads stated in her usual, non-emotional way.

Hitomi sighed and gently unsheathed her blade, giving Jacqueline a bad feeling about her plan to solve that matter with words. While the former told the blacksmith to go back to the town due to it being safer there, Jacqueline found herself some time to muster her target. Being about 175 cm of height and having long, straight hair she basically was nothing special. She neither had scars to make her look tough nor did she show some kind of confidence that the other warriors in the higher ranks had. However, Jacqueline found herself rapt by her fellow warrior's hairdo for a moment. Her bangs were cut irregularly at about the height of her eyes. She had two strands, one on the right and one on the left side of her face, go down across her collarbones, down to her unimpressive chest. The rest of her hair run down over her back and even reached her bottom.

Even though Matthias wanted to stay at first Hitomi eventually managed to talk him into going back to Arnea. It was silent for a moment as the two warriors stared into each others eyes. Jacqueline found something that she called a strange determination in Hitomi's eyes. Suddenly the confidence that she had lacked just moments before was there and impressed Jacqueline quite a bit.

She got interrupted in her thoughts by the shorter warrior: "If you are going to fight me, you should draw your blade. I'm not going to wait forever, you know?"

The moment she had finished Jacqueline effortlessly stopped an attack that suddenly came from the right with her claymore. The image of Hitomi that had spoken just then vanished. The real Hitomi was right to her, morticing her feet into the ground to put as much pressure onto Jacqueline's blade as possible. The tall warrior just horizontally held her sword with her left hand at the height of her waistline. Hitomi put all her strength into breaking her opponents block but wasn't able to.

Without warning Jacqueline made a step forward with her right foot, leaving the left one in place and altered the ankle she had held her weapon to make the pressure Hitomi had built up into making her barge forwards. That finally led to her tripping over Jacqueline's left heel, but she managed to stay on her feet.

As she finally found a secure standing she took a deep breath and straightened up. She turned around to face Jacqueline again and, while gesturing wildly, huffily complained: "That was a dirty trick. And by the way, you shittin' me? No way you could've seen trough my technique that fast!"

"He," Jacqueline giggled, "that's a pretty awesome skill you've got there. How many images of you can you make? Or should I call it... copies? It would work fine against nearly every warrior, Yoma or Awakened Being. Me being the exception, of course."

That arrogance made Hitomi mad. She knew that it would be tough to fight _that_ warrior but she never expected her to see trough her most dangerous technique, a skill that she herself called _One Man Army_. By moving at lightning speed between up to ten spots this technique allowed her to make copies of her to distract her opponent. Each of those copies was inseparable from the original due to them practically being the original. Or so she thought.

"You are wondering why your technique failed, aren't you?" Jacqueline asked. Not waiting for an answer she thoroughly explained: "Your technique relies on distracting the opponent in two ways. The first one is to practically increase the number of physical bodies you have. The second way is to scatter your Yoki all over the battlefield to make it absolutely impossible for someone to tell where exactly you are. I, however can do that – and that is the flaw of your technique. It's useless against me."

'Who does that bitch think she is? My tutor or what?' Hitomi thought. She ground her teeth and rushed at Jacqueline again. She aimed to slice her in half horizontally but found her target to be gone just a split second before her strike would have landed.

She kept on attacking Jacqueline at a pace that no other warrior would have been able to keep up with but Jacqueline kept dodging all of her attacks. Sometime during the fight Jacqueline had even sheathed her blade again because she was confident to not need it.

Hitomi knew what was going on. Jacqueline read her like a book and therefore was able to evade every single attack of her. There was, however, her last resort for cases like that. She sheathed her sword, giving Jacqueline the hope of finally having that useless battle ended. Hitomi had other intentions, however. Out of nowhere she suddenly had a red pill not bigger than a pea and swallowed it.

Jacqueline couldn't react fast enough and chastised herself for not having been quick enough to prevent that. With Hitomi's speed and muscular strength she suddenly had turned into an actually fearsome opponent.

'That's it for words, I guess,' she thought.

"I see, so that is how you are going to overcome the weakness of your skill and counter my Yoki sensing abilities. Keeping track of you now will be troublesome" she blankly stated.

There was, however, something else that bothered her: "By the way, where did you pull the Yoki Suppressant out from?"

Hitomi scratched her head for a bit, then shrugged her shoulders and honestly answered: "I don't have a clue. Maybe Yagi is to blame for not letting us have any pockets or backpacks and stuff."

Hitomi's eyes had turned into a mixture of a light blue and a light violet. The color of her hair had turned into hazel. Like that she looked even more beautiful to Jacqueline, but she didn't let herself get distracted. Before her there was a really dangerous opponent. She could only feel a flickering something, not to speak of reading it.

'Considering her speed and muscular strength she's no enemy I can defeat that easily anymore,' Jacqueline analyzed the new situation she was in.

The shorter warrior grasped the hilt of her claymore and took a steady stance. Her eyes that now revealed a depth that surpassed the depth of an ocean found Jacqueline's yet again blank face. The black haired warrior was about three meters away from her target as said target's face all of a sudden turned honest and determined.

The ground around Hitomi started to show slices and cracks. The air around her was scintillating and Jacqueline could feel wind weakly blowing against her face. She knew that Hitomi was the source of all this but no matter how hard she tried to focus, she couldn't hear it, not to speak of seeing it. Not the swings and slashes in the air, not the slicing and cracking of the ground.

The sudden it came, the sudden it stopped. But the fashion it stopped in was anything but silent. It was like all the sounds that had been swallowed by the attack of Number 11 were unleashed at once together with the sonic waves bound to them.

Jacqueline was knocked back a few meters by the mere shock wave and felt a sudden, intense pain in her ears. For a few moments she wasn't able to hear anything. Her sight was hazy and she couldn't even see her own Yoki clearly.

She sat on the ground, heavily breathing, and tried to get her sight back by blinking multiple times. She saw the figure of a warrior walking towards her and before she knew the tip of a blade pointed directly towards her forehead.

The rare expression of stress was in the black haired warrior's face as she realized the situation she was in. Hitomi explained to her that it was Jacqueline's defeat and that she should return to the Organization before Hitomi would decide to kill her. Jacqueline, however, could only hear some incomprehensible gibberish but could figure approximately what Hitomi had said and on a whim decided to finally use Yoki since there was no way her reading abilities would help her against her opponent again.

In a flash Jacqueline shot back, found herself safe ground and shot towards Hitomi again. She tried to impale the five claws of her hand that had changed shape due to her releasing an immense amount of Yoki into Hitomi's chest while she carefully aimed for non vital points. Hitomi, though, was able to block the attack with the broad side of her claymore. That led to her to being sent flying for about ten meters before touching ground again. She hit the ground several times before eventually stopping her uncontrolled movement.

She slowly got to her feet again. Jacqueline's attack, however, had a far greater impact than originally planned by her. Due to her opponents block only three claws hit, but not were they were supposed to hit. All three of them impaled the shorter warriors right lung, causing her to have problems breathing and coughing up blood a few times.

Hitomi sunk to her right knee again, stemming her left hand against the ground to not completely fall again.

'It's the same... it's the same as last time! Again I got overpowered in a split second... but this time,' she continued her thoughts after a short pause, looking at the warrior that was stepping towards her, 'there will be no Emily to save me...'

###

_Hitomi lay on the ground, trying to breathe but only ending up coughing. Her right lung was no longer capable of doing it's job. Every now and then she was able to take a breath, so at least she didn't suffocate._

_Before her there stood the Awakened Being that had made her unable to fight in a single blow. She finally had to accept that her _Stormcutter_ was far from being the non plus ultra as a special attack. It was to slow to hit her enemy and to weak to damage it._

_As the Awakened Being aimed for yet another strike Hitomi had already come to terms with her life. Too soon, because the fellow warrior whose arrival she had sensed a few minutes ago suddenly made her appearance._

_Without warning or a second thought she started to bombard the Awakened One with slashes. That she did at a pace even Hitomi had problems following. Her enemy started to rapidly launch attacks with her eight arms and despite hitting several hundred times the damage she inflicted couldn't stop her opponent from cutting her apart bit by bit._

_In the end the Awakened One was but a pile of flesh and Emily was in a condition far worse than Hitomi but still she remained standing and offered her help in healing the wounds of Hitomi and her comrade Maria who was lying behind Hitomi._

###

The razorlike edge of Jacqueline's blade gently touched Hitomi's neck.

"I am sorry to correct you," the black haired warrior began, "but it is _your_ defeat."

Hitomi's gaze wandered to the ground. She knew that Jacqueline was right. Even though she had just taken a Yoki suppressant the enormous amount of Yoki that Jacqueline had used just then gave her the chills. In addition to that that amount of Yoki had made Jacqueline faster and stronger than Hitomi herself was.

'That also is a Single Digit fighting seriously,' she thought. 'No way I could ever match something like that,' she had to admit.

She wanted to sigh but ended up coughing.

"Honestly, how reckless you are," Jacqueline lectured her while sheathing her claymore yet again, "due to the drug you took you won't be able to regenerate that easily for the following twelve hours."

Hitomi's eyes wandered up to meet Jacqueline's again.

"You're... not going to kill me?" she asked being surprised.

Jacqueline sighed bugged: "Of course not, stupid! I've been telling you from the beginning that my mission was not to execute you, but did you listen? No, you didn't."

The shorter warrior did not quite understand what was going on. Jacqueline took Hitomi's sword and put it in the second fitting of her armor. She then took Hitomi and started carrying her towards Arnea. The latter protested heavily what led her to cough over and over again.

"Shut up already, will you? Your wound is nothing to laugh at, so, for your survival's sake, stop complaining at let me take you to some place where you can rest for a while."

"But the grave..."

A dunning view of Jacqueline made Hitomi resign. She inwardly cursed herself for still not being strong enough to protect something important to her. Her face clearly showed that.

Jacqueline, being fully aware of that, tried to lift Hitomi's mood a bit: "You know, Hitomi. Protecting someone important to you even though she's already dead is noble, but, no offense intended, wasted effort. You have quite some abilities that are still able to grow. It's better to spend them on protecting people who are still alive. The dead will not give you their thanks for having their corpses protected, nor do they care what happens to them. And," she paused for a bit, "your memories of her are the most important thing. As long as you keep them, there is no need to have a corpse or a place to feel her closeness."

Hitomi knew that all along, she had just not been aware of it. It felt wrong to her to leave the corpse of the one who saved her live to the Organization. But she could do nothing about it anymore. She felt that her cheeks had gotten wet. Even though she was not crying and didn't even feel like it, still some sole tears ran down her face every now and then.

She eventually fell asleep due to the monotone motions of Jacqueline carrying her and the thoughts that swirled around in her head.

###

_Just after she had reached the town of Arnea the black haired warrior felt an awkward silence there. There was no muttering about silver-eyed witches, Claymore, half-human, half-Yoma and suchlike. It was more like whispers coming partly from surprised faces and partly from pitying faces. She didn't care about that, though._

_The moment she had left the town she dried her face with the right sleeve of her skin tight uniform and put on her blank face again. Her inside was stirred up but she had no time to care about that._

_While she was thinking about what to say to _her_ she noticed some man in black hiding in the bushes to her right._

_One of them stepped out of their hideout to greet Jacqueline: "Hello there, _Blankface_. I presume that you are the warrior sent to enable us taking former Number 6's corpse already?"_

_She mustered the man who was dressed in black completely. His cloth robe revealed nothing but his face and hands. His face was missing the skin of it's entire left side. To Jacqueline it seemed like he had suffered a rather painful burn in his past._

"_You are Dae, if I am not mistaken?"_

"_I am," the Man in Black answered plainly._

"_I am the warrior sent to give you access to Emily's corpse."_

"_That is great, indeed. But, if possible, don't kill _her_. She is one of my favorite children, after all."_

"_I have no intention to kill her. But... children?" Jacqueline stopped short._

_Dae directed his gaze towards Hitomi's location._

_He then explained, sounding rather honest: "To me, all the warriors I create are like my children. Even though I regularly meet them at most two times in their entire life – when I turn them into warriors and after their death – I am always interested in what they are doing, where they are going and how reliable they are on their jobs. Sometimes I get really sad after hearing that one of them died. In some way I am their father, after all."_

_Even though Dae had spoken very convincingly just then Jacqueline had some doubts about him really meaning it the way he had said it. As the head of the Retrieval Squad it was more likely for him to just be interested in new research results, she thought. However, if he was really as concerned, as he said he was, then there was something that he could tell Jacqueline about._

_She also directed her view into the same direction as Dae looked and asked him: "That corpse... why is it so important to her to willingly risk her life to protect it?"_

_Dae then turned his full body around to be able to face Hitomi's direction without having to twist his neck to the right that much._

"_You see," he began to tell of what he believed was the truth, "the Awakened Being, Emily, that is, once saved our _Soundcutter's_ skin. She got rally attached to her and they spent quite a lot of time together whenever they could. As soon as Emily became a Single Digit, they were separated. Eventually Emily lost it and awakened before she could send out her Black Card. I have no doubt that Hitomi would have gotten it. Emily was taken down by you, however. The moment Hitomi heard about that, at least that is what I think, she headed here. Regrettably she ran into some of my man who were about to take the corpse away. About the rest you should know, I assume?"_

"_I see," she unemotionally stated._

_Something crossed her mind, so she asked Dae a favor._

"_And what would that be?"_

"_After you've taken the corpse, will you be so kind to fix the grave?"_

"_Huh?" Dae wondered, "why should we?"_

"_Well," she answered, "Hitomi would be very sad to see the grave of her best friend defiled. She might even end up like Maria. So If she had at least a place to go, whenever she feels like mourning, that would be a noble thing of you and your men to do."_

"_I don't know..." the Man in Black contemplated Jacqueline's idea._

"_I'd owe you, of course."_

"_Huh?"_

"_I have my hands full of work, but as the head of the Retrieval Squad there might be things that you want to have observed, confirmed or obtained. Something your men can't do and the Organization would not send a warrior for. I could do that then," she offered._

_Dae directed her view towards her again. "I see," he said while offering her his right hand, "it's settled then."_

_She also gazed into his eyes then and took his hand._

###

It was knocking at the door.

"Come in," Jacqueline demanded.

It was Matthias who entered through the screaking door. Whit him he had a vase with colorful flowers. He placed them on the night table next to the bed Hitomi was resting on.

"How is she?" the bald man asked Jacqueline who sat on the second bed in the inn's room.

"She'll be fine," she answered. "Her Yoki is growing stronger hour by hour. She should awake very soon."

Sightly relieved Matthias sat down next to Jacqueline.

After he had watched Hitomi sleeping peacefully for a bit, Jacqueline broke the silence: "Don't get too attached to her."

He directed his view towards the warrior's blank face and asked puzzled: "What do you mean by that?"

Jacqueline arose and stepped over to Hitomi's bed. Having an unusual gentle look on her face she looked at her and tenderly let the tip of her left index glide over Hitomi's forehead.

"She's a beautiful girl, isn't she?" she asked with a voice that wasn't more than a whisper.

Taken aback a bit Matthias answered: "Yes, she is."

"He... that's what I'd like to say. And you are a young man, there is no blaming you for thinking that way."

"What are you trying to say, then?"

She then stepped over to where Matthias was sitting and laid her right hand onto his left shoulder and explained herself, having an honest face: "She is neither a girl nor a woman. She is not even a human. She is a warrior, half-human and half-Yoma, an existence with the sole purpose of finding and slaying Yoma. She can die every day. Those who like or even love her will be the ones to suffer. So, for your mind's sake, forget about her as soon as possible."

Matthias then arose and stepped towards the door. Before he left, he just said: "Thanks for the advice."

A few moments after Matthias had left a dark figure stepped out of a dark corner of the room. His cloak made abradant sounds as it dragged over the wooden floor. Only the man's angular face could be seen under his hood.

"Honestly," he complained, "I thought that guy would never leave."

He sat down onto Jacqueline's bed, in the same spot she had sat before.

"What's about our Sleeping Beauty? It's not like I can have you watch over her forever."

"It's as I said. It shouldn't take her long. My guess is that she'll awake around nightfall," she sat shortly before taking place next to Orsay.

Yet again they sat around together, having the most silent atmosphere around them. Again it was Jacqueline who broke it: "Do you have orders or are you just passing by?"

A rather wide smile appeared on his face. It was, however, unnoticed by Jacqueline due to her looking at Hitomi.

"You're not the one to waste time, are you?" he asked her, not really expecting an answer. "As soon, as she is awake, the two of you are to return to the Organization. There is a scouting mission awaiting you and a, how to put it... _babysitter-mission_ for her."

Jacqueline felt a faint sign of interest in what exactly a _babysitter-mission_ is but didn't give it too much thought. She felt a bit eased to have a scouting-mission again. On the other hand it was annoying to her to have to cross the whole continent just to scout something. She could have done that without fail from wherever she was. In the end complaining wouldn't have helped her, so she accepted it.

'Another two months wasted to get there,' she exasperatedly complained to herself, 'and as I know them I am to return here just to waste another two months.' She sighed.

"Something the matter?" Orsay asked.

"Nah," she answered.

After another period of silence Jacqueline broke it yet again: "How's Liara doing?"

"She got promoted two times since the two of you were on a hunt together."

"Oh?"

"At first she was promoted to rank 13. Shortly after she was sent to annihilate a Yoma nest together with number 12. The latter died, however, and so Liara got her rank."

That made Jacqueline wonder: "A Yoma nest, huh? Shouldn't normally either of them have been able to do it alone?"

Orsay arose with those words. He stepped towards one of the windows and looked into the setting sun. "That exactly is the problem here," he said with a sad voice.

"I heard rumors," Jacqueline said, "from former number 19, Maria."

Orsay was pretty sure what the rumors were about. The warrior's grapevine worked quite well after all.

"I heard," Jacqueline started to tell as she rose up to place herself next to Orsay again, "that Liara may have gotten promotions that where not... politically correct. I heard that Liara may occasionally have killed higher ranking warriors to take their positions. Therefore the other warriors started to call her _Backstabbing Liara_."

He was right, after all. It was the exact rumor he had heard, too. The job Liara did together with number 12 seemed to corroborate those rumors. There was no proof at that time, however.

"If those rumors where to be true," Jacqueline asked with a lower voice, "what would be the consequences for her?"

Orsay didn't answer that question. He didn't want to name it. Besides, he was sure that Jacqueline already had the correct idea and just wanted to have it confirmed. He turned around and left without another word.

###

The two of them had just entered the great hall where the elders of the Organization were residing. Rimuto looked kind of bored, like he always did. However, the two warriors that had just entered the hall caught his attention since he was awaiting them. They stopped in the middle of the hall, waiting for their permission to speak. Out of the corner of her eye Jacqueline spotted Rubel who slightly nodded to greet her.

Jacqueline felt that something was off that day. Whenever she came to the Organization there were at most two to three actual warriors besides _Number 10_ and the trainees. Most of the time the warriors present weren't even strong ones. That time, however, there were three really bright Yoki present. They were small but their luminance told Jacqueline that they were at about her level in terms of raw power. One of these Yoki even was familiar to Jacqueline, she just couldn't classify it at that moment.

Rimuto arose and stepped towards the two warriors just to stop about two meters away from them.

"It is good to see that you were able to fulfill your mission without having to kill Number 11. Good work, _Blankface_. Please accompany Rubel out of the hall. He will have the details on your next job."

Without a single word Jacqueline turned around to leave the hall, closely followed by Rubel.

Rimuto then directed his gaze towards Hitomi while giving a nearly not noticeable hand signal to one of the Men in Black. A young warrior in her teens entered the hall and placed herself next to Hitomi. She had four braids, two to frame her face and two that were engulfed into a ponytail.

She saluted to Rimuto and said: "At your service!"

Rimuto then explained to Hitomi: "This young lady here is Hysteria, the new Number 8. You and her will be partners from now on. I lay the command in your hands even though she has the higher rank. She is very important to us and we can't afford losing her due to her lack of experience. You better do that job properly. If you slack off again we will send Jacqueline to execute you, got that?"

That one had hit. Hitomi was lucky to still be alive. On her way to the Organization's headquarters she thought about it many times. Had the Organization sent another warrior she would have most likely been dead then. From the conversations she had with Jacqueline during their journey she had got to know her as a gentle and caring person, even though she did everything to not look that way. The first time she died she was saved by Emily. The second time she died she was saved by Jacqueline.

She decided not to let such luck slip away and answered: "I will not disappoint you again. Leave her in my care."

Rimuto mustered the warrior's face for a bit and decided that the honesty it was showing was real.

"You are dismissed then," he plainly said before returning to his seat.


	6. Chapter 5: Prelude to extinction

**Chapter 5 – Prelude to extinction**

Big things were going on inside the walls of the Organization's headquarters. It was way busier than normally due to the discovery of a certain warrior's true strength.

Ever since the Organization was founded they were struggling to get the Yoma plague under control. To do so they were merging a Yoma's flesh and blood with a human's body to create the silver-eyed warriors who were able to tell Yoma apart from humans and to slay them. Due to the huge swords they carried in order to do so they have been given the name Claymore by the people.

Whenever there was a Yoma in a town they could do nothing else but to rely on the help of one of those warriors, no matter how much they disliked it. The silver-eyed warriors were the only ones who could deal with a Yoma, after all.

The Organization, however, was anything but the saviors some of the people saw in them. Their purpose on that island was not to save the people from the Yoma. To say that they brought them there reflects the truth rather.

For more than 350 years there had been a war going on on the continent the people called Unikum due to them thinking that it was the only landmass on the whole planet. Well, they rather called it world. They had no idea of what a planet was, after all.

About 70 years before the peoples that were warring against each other formed two big alliances. One of them, however, had a very big advance: they had non-human allies, called the Descendants of Dragons. They were comparable with Claymore in their _sleeping_ form and on the other hand comparable with _Awakened Ones_ in their _awakened_ form. The only difference was that they actually kept their senses together after awakening.

The moment the other side had to face them for real they founded the Organization in order to create a weapon suitable for fighting _Awakened Descendants_. Methods unknown, they found a way to capture living specimen of the Descendants. They had planned on directly putting a Descendant's flesh into a human's body in the hope of applying its original owner's strength into the subject. That, however, didn't work as planned.

If they used a _Sleeping Descendant's_ flesh, the subject did not change much. The body was just accepting the Descendant's flesh as if it were its own. The only change was that the subjects grew an unbearable hunger for human flesh. They were all killed, of course.

If they used an _Awakened Descendant's_ flesh, the result was pretty much an _Awakened Being_. In a sense, it was kind of what the Organization had planned: they kept their human minds and therefore were controllable. The downside was that these Beings rotted away withing weeks despite being alive. They also had no practical use in war.

A big breakthrough had been made short after. The Organization had not given up on the Descendant's flesh. The _Sleeping Descendant's_ flesh did not make humans strong but gave them a hunger for human flesh. The _Awakened Descendant's_ flesh made the humans strong but shortened their lifespan drastically. So they came up with a method to merge the flesh of a _Sleeping_ and an _Awakened Descendant_. The result was a virus they simply called _Parasite_.

It was not really a living being but still it was living tissue. The Organization implanted it into humans. There the flesh dissolved into the human body and took over every part of it. Even the human's mind was taken over. The result was what the people call a Yoma.

Their existence had never been made public on Unikum. The Organization was afraid that the people would desert their alliance and join the _Descendant's_ alliance.

However, they found their results far to valuable to just ignore them and so they searched for a place to do their research without the fear of having deserters. They found out that Unikum was not the only land in the world. They found numerous islands that were also inhabited by humans and therefore numerous test sides for their research.

One of their biggest breakthroughs were the Claymore. Made out of a human body and a Yoma's flesh and blood they got the ability to sense Yoki, something every Yoma, Awakened Being and Descendant had – and the Claymore, of course. In addition to that they also got a power great enough to at least slay Yoma. Some of them even were strong enough to slay _Awakened Beings_ – in other words _Awakened Descendants_. To use that power they had to use their Yoki, but...

Every breakthrough has its drawback. Even though the warriors created from a human's body and a Yoma's flesh were rather strong and could sense Yoki as normal people could see light, they had to face a fate that was certain: awakening. Every warrior sooner or later had to awaken due to the overuse of Yoki. When a warrior awakens, he or she turns into a monster comparable to a _Descendant_. The problem with that was that the desire to eat human flesh suddenly took control of the warrior. You could say that he or she completely lost his or her mind after awakening.

An Awakened Being, however, was nothing to worry about too much. There were warriors strong enough to take them on and defeat them. There were but two problematic types of Awakened Beings: male Awakened Beings and former number Ones.

Male Awakened Beings were former male warriors who had awakened. For a male the process of awakening felt much like sexual pleasure, so the most of them didn't last more than a year until they awakened. The main problem about that was the fact that the males generally were stronger than the females. In other words: an awakened male was far worse of a matter than an awakened female. The Organization stopped making male warriors after the fifth generation.

Still, there was the matter of number ones awakening. A number one was the strongest warrior of his or her era at that time. That warrior was someone that mostly could only be endangered by numbers 2 to 5.

At that time the Organization had three awakened former number ones to deal with – the so called _Abyssal Ones_. The first number one to ever awaken was Easley, the first number one in that island's Organization's history. He occupied the north of the island. The second one to awaken was the second number one in history – Riful, a female warrior that led the warrior's forces after Easley's awakening. She occupied the western lands.

Lately a third Abyssal One had occupied the south. It was Luciela, the number one before Neerie. She awakened during a failed experiment of the Organization. Their original plan was to let a warrior awaken while the other one kept on pulling back the Awakened One's mind. They tried it with sisters – and it failed. Luciela awakened and killed her sister amongst half of the Organization's warriors in the process. That is what the Organization told their warriors, however.

Rafaela, Luciela's sister, was still alive. She got stripped off her number and was forced to hide somewhere in the lands of the east. During Neerie's era Rafaela actually was the strongest warrior alive. That being said it should be clear why she still was alive – the Organization had no means to go against her at that time.

Whatever the case, the Organization of that island had to deal with three Abyssal Ones. Normally they wouldn't have taken any action against them, but Luciela was a special case. Her awakening had taken place only about three years before. She already had awakened as Jacqueline became a warrior, meaning, that her latent power had already became her own.

However, the Organization had a nearly unbeatable team of warriors at hand – the _Doublefingers_. They got that name due to the fact that both of them carried not one but two claymores with them. Neerie's swords had her own symbol and that of Vanessa, in Vanessa's case it was vice versa. From the very beginning they had been sent on jobs together and had fast filled the spot Luciela and Rafaela had left. They were a force strong enough to take on Luciela in the state she was back then.

That, however, took the Organization some time to notice. All three eyes they had during Luciela's era were killed by her after awakening. The next generation bought forth only one eye – a black haired warrior, a failed experiment – or so they thought.

After acknowledging that warrior's true power they started to plan something they had never done before – the hunt for an Abyssal One, Luciela of the south. For that sole reason the Organization had gathered their two most valuable forces – _Blankface_ and the _Doublefingers_.

###

Rubel led Jacqueline through the endless hallways of the Organization's headquarters. Whenever she was to follow a Man in Black through them she wondered about how they were able to orient themselves there.

While they passed the dark corridors that were only lit by very few torches Rubel told her about her upcoming assignment: "You will remember, Jacqueline, that we had you measure Luciela's strength a while ago, am I right?"

The tall warrior didn't care to answer. She knew that he knew that she never forgot about things she had done during a job. She just kept following her handler through the maze the Organization was.

"You could answer questions from time to time," he continued, "I am not a mind reader you know?"

Again Jacqueline kept quiet.

Rubel sighed. 'That girl is hopeless,' he thought. Even though he knew that Jacqueline was not the talkative one, something felt off about her. So he asked her what it might have been.

"I just wondered," she plainly stated, "why there are four powerful warriors at the Organization's headquarters, including me. Seems to me like something is about to happen."

"Sharp as always" he complimented her. "You only have to care about two of them, excluding yourself, however. The fourth one has been put under the care of number 11, Hitomi."

"Huh?" she wondered for a moment. "Why would the chief put someone so strong in the care of a traitor?"

"The reasons are simple," Rubel began his explanation after taking a sudden turn to the right to enter another hallway, "first of all Hitomi is not really a traitor. She may be problematic sometimes, but she is a rather obedient warrior and a rather strong one, too. She is not unable to aim for number one. About the one she was put in charge for, she has just recently received her rank and symbol."

Jacqueline stopped walking then to pause for a moment. Someone that strong that had just recently finished her training?

Rubel's voice receded itself and Jacqueline noticed that she had fallen behind, so she caught up with him again.

"She also is someone to aim for number one. Both of them are offensive types that made an excessive speed their own. The difference between the two of them is the fact that number 11 has abnormal strength but is no good when it comes to sensing Yoki. With Hysteria – number 8, by the way – it's vice versa. In addition to that, number 8 has no real combat experience. We can't afford such a talent to go to waste, so we decided to put her into a team with number 11. The both of them will gain from it."

That way it sounded reasonable to Jacqueline. She wasn't used to the Organization actually giving its actions some thought beforehand, but she felt that it was better that way. However, that had nothing to do with her job, as she had figured, so she remained silent to hear the rest of what Rubel had to tell her.

After having left her some time to process the input he had given her, he continued: "The other two strong presences you feel will work together with you in your next job."

Through her blank face it was unable to tell that she was quite a bit excited about that fact. Also one of the presences felt familiar to her for some reason. She felt that Rubel and her were nearing them.

"As I said, we had you measure Luciela's strength. After doing a lot of considering and reconsidering, discussing and rediscussing, we came to the conclusion that we might have a force strong enough to kill Luciela."

They stopped in front of a door. The black haired warrior clearly could feel that both of the strong presences she felt were behind it.

"I may acquaint you with our most powerful force," he said and opened the door while making a stage wait, "our number one and number two, the _Doublefingers_!"

Jacqueline, completely ignoring Rubel's efforts to be dramatic, entered the room to find two warriors who sat at a table, facing the entrance. The room itself was but a small chamber that, in fact, had nothing more than an illiberal table with four stools around it. Two of them were occupied by the Organization's most powerful team of warriors: number one, Neerie, and number two, Vanessa.

The former was recognized by Jacqueline, but she still introduced herself to them formally: "I am Jacqueline. I am the Organization's number 6 as well as the Organization's eyes. I will be on a job with you together."

The warriors mustered each other. The left one, Neerie, had wavy hair that ran down to her back. Her bangs were as long as the other hair and framed her face. Her chest was rather big for her youthful face. She was no older than eighteen years was Jacqueline's guess. The right one appeared to be a bit shorter than her comrade. She had straight combed back hair that reached down to her bottom. Her face looked stiff and honest and like that of a mature woman. The both of them wore the standard uniform of an Organization's warrior – a skin tight, light gray cloth uniform, slim steel boots and bracers, a belt around her waist with rhombic steel plates attached to it to protect her lower body, as well as three-ply pauldrons as a sign of them being in the top 5. In addition to that they had gray capes that reached down to their back.

The symbols of their crests were simple, but memorable. Neerie's Symbol was a vertical bar that was crossed in the middle by a bar of half the length from the top left to the bottom right. Vanessa's symbol looked like a sharp arrow pointing downwards.

Neerie barely remembered the black haired woman but was not sure wherefrom. Despite her black hair the only thing that separated her from Neerie and Vanessa in terms of looks were her two-sly pauldrons, a sign of her being a Single Digit but not part of the top five. Her symbol consisted of a vertical bar that was crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar thrice as long as the vertical one.

The first thing about Jacqueline to be noticed by Vanessa was her black hair. She arose from her stool and walked towards her, stopping just a few centimeters away from her. She was a b it annoyed by the fact that she had to slightly look up to meet her fellow warrior's blank eyes, but not as much as by the fact of the Organization actually expecting her to work with a failed experiment.

"The Organization must be outta'ts mind," she said with a monotone voice while giving Jacqueline an unrequited stare, "making someone like _her_ a Single Digit. Maybe they were drunk or something?"

Jacqueline did not show a reaction to Vanessa's rudeness but felt angered inside. Again she was judged just by her looks. Still she kept calm and simply stated that there was no meaning in questioning the higher up's decisions.

Rubel sighed, "Please sit down, everyone. As Jacqueline correctly stated, you have to bear with chief Rimuto's decision, if you like it, or not."

"Ts," Vanessa sizzled. She abruptly turned around, making her hair and cape swing, and took her seat next to Neerie again. The latter had not commented the situation, neither acoustically, nor mimically, nor gestically. She knew her partner very well – and therefore the fact that she hated working together with someone else than her and that she never failed to find a reason to complain about someone.

Jacqueline leaned her back against the wall right to the door and just said: "Standing will do."

Rubel then also entered the room and closed the door behind him quietly. He also did not take a seat and remained standing in front of the door.

"So what now, Rubel? We know already what we're gonna do. What're we gonna need _her_ for?" the more mature looking woman asked with a very displeased look.

"My, my," the Man in Black calmly said, "you are indeed nice as always."

Vanessa's gaze wandered to Jacqueline's eyes for a moment, just for her to realize, that Jacqueline stared into one of the torches that lit the room.

"Honestly," she groaned, "we'll be fine on our own. No need for a millstone round our necks."

Suddenly the ground around Jacqueline as well the wall behind her got small cracks. A short but strong flash of Yoki could be felt by Neerie as well as Vanessa. The former just sighed inwardly, already knowing that Vanessa was about to cause trouble. Again. Vanessa, on her part, was startled by the sheer amount of Yoki back then. For the moment she decided to keep a low profile.

Rubel sighed again, looking at Jacqueline: "Don't let your temper get the better of you. Against those two that would be a bad idea, even if it's you."

Jacqueline could at that moment clearly see why Neerie was the number one and Vanessa the number two. Her short outburst had stirred up Vanessa's Yoki completely while Neerie's had not changed a bit.

"Someone who gets startled so easily should not have such a big mouth," she stated calmly, "it might get yourself in trouble some day."

That had it been for Vanessa's low profile. In a nearly invisible move she jumped towards Jacqueline with the aim to punch her. However, just a moment before she would have struck, Jacqueline's left hand calmly grabbed her face and nonchalantly pushed her to the left, leading to her breaching four walls.

While picking herself up and muttering "Ouch, that hurt," she brushed off the dust. The other rooms she impolitely crossed where all empty. Even though that would have looked painful to any viewer, Vanessa was as good as new.

Jacqueline still had her palm directed towards the older woman but slowly lowered it while saying: "See? This is what you get for being angered too easily. You have not done your homework well. I am the Organization's eyes. I can sense, read and even manipulate Yoki like other people can walk. Don't even consider fighting me on your own. Your Yoki is to wild, to easy to read, because you let yourself be angered too easily. You need to calm yourself more."

"He," Vanessa chuckled while slowly walking towards Jacqueline, "got a pretty big mouth yrself there. No worries, I've done my homework. Y're the one they call _Blankface_. The black haired warrior that's able to predict 'n alter an enemy's attack like none's ever been able before. Y'can sense whoever y like over the whole continent. 'N whatever y'do, y always have that stupid face. It's like a puppet's. Y'know number 7? Tattletale Lisa? After hearin' 'bout y she came up with a new nickname. I'm not gonna tell y, though. Y'll hear it soon enough."

"However," she continued, reaching her hand out to Jacqueline, "Y're not that small of a fry I thought y to be. Me's Vanessa, the Old Man's Association's number two."

The slightly taller woman took her fellow warrior's offer. Vanessa took her seat again and before Rubel could finally talk about their job with them, also Neerie decided to introduce herself:

"I am Neerie, the Organization's number one. Seems like you and _Nessie_ will get along well. I'm glad. The both of us are looking forward to working with you."

Jacqueline also took a seat then. Rubel was relieved a bit back then. The two most important forces of the Organization slaying each other would have been inauspicious. Net that he had minded that personally, though.

"Well then, ladies," he started his explanation, "the three of you will dispose of the Abyssal One, Luciela of the south."

###

'Honestly', she thought, 'from the west to the east, from the east to the south... what do these bastards think?'

"Is something the matter?" the childlike voice of the younger warrior asked her mentor. She was looking up to her with a curious face.

Hitomi just sighed: "It's nothing to give too much thought. It just is on my nerves a bit that I have to travel so much lately. What do I have an area assigned to me if I just roam the whole continent?"

Hysteria turned her look down to the ground for a bit to think but then looked up to Hitomi again to answer: "Well, we have been given an important job, haven't we? You do remember what Orsay told us, don't you?"

"I do..."

###

"_That is rare. The Organization sending us to slay Yoma even though there has been no request?"_

"_You are right. This time is different, however."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_We are talking about ten Yoma nests here. A total number of about 300 Yoma. As of now they are preying on the visitors of the towns they have occupied. That won't work forever."_

"_Then they will just go to other villages in small groups. They send requests, we kill them and – we get money. I don't see the problem."_

"_That's why you are not fit to be a leader, Hitomi. We are talking about 300 Yoma, just to remind you. Even if they form small groups, what I think is unlikely, we would still have at least one hundred villages suddenly wanting us to take care of the Yoma there."_

"_So what? We have forty-seven warriors. Even if we don't send them all, it should still be done in three to four weeks."_

"_You don't get it, do you? The Yoma are not dumb. If they scent a warrior too strong for them they run. So if you send a strong warrior after a small group of Yoma they'll think twice about messing with her."_

"_I see. You're implying that they would leave the moment they sense us."_

"_Yes. It's different, however, if they are bunched together like they are right now. Even though they are no pack animals, they know very well that being together makes them strong. They even tend to overestimate themselves."_

"_I see. That's the reason why killing them now is better. But still... take _Shorty_ and me," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "we both are fast. There is no way a Yoma could run from any of us. Ever."_

"_I know. But how long do you think it will take clearing a hundred villages and towns – or more? Not matter how fast you are, sooner or later you will have to rest. If there were more as capable as you two, no problem. But our situation is different."_

"_You have _Shorty_," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "the _Doublefingers_, _Blankface_, _Vectra the Persistent_ and of course me. That are five forces fast enough to not let any Yoma escape."_

"_That is true, but the _Doublefingers_ and _Blankface_ are assigned to another job of top priority. Number three, Vectra, is busy with the requests for _Awakened Ones_ that have been mushrooming for a few months now. That only leaves the two of you. So we want you to take care of this matter as soon as possible."_

"_What a shame. 300 Yoma, that would make 90 million Beras."_

"_Yes, but we can't afford the Yoma plague to get out of control because of money. The two of you, do not fail this mission!"_

"_Don't worry, _Shorty_," she continued without taking notice of her being poked by Hysteria, "and I will not disappoint you."_

"_Very well."_

###

"Still it's a waste to let that much money get away," Hitomi stated.

"But 300,000 Beras a Yoma, isn't that pretty much? If I remember correctly, my parents earned about 3,000 a Year together," her young comrade explained. "An ordinary village has about fifty families and most of them don't even earn that much. So even if we would want to get the money we still would not get it because the people would not be able to pay for even a single Yoma – not talking about a group of them."

Hitomi sighed. Of course her companion was right: if a village wanted a Yoma to be taken care of, that regularly meant a whole month of sacrifice for every resident there. No meat, no new clothes, overtime and sacrificing savings.

The money was, however, not the only thing Hitomi felt uneasy about. She also wondered why the Yoma would form groups in the first place. Yoma were not dumb, as Orsay had told them, but still they had no idea of tactics and stuff like that. Grouping together only gave them numbers but that was all there was to it. It was not like them being able to make strategic moves and suchlike because they lacked intelligence too much to do so.

As they closed in to their first target, Hysteria stopped to take a close view of the village. "33 presences that feel like Yoma," she stated, "but there is one more that feels different. It also is no warrior."

Suddenly Hitomi understood. "I see," she began to explain, "an Awakened Being is leading them."

That term caught Hysteria's attention. She never had heard of Awakened Beings before and therefore was curious what that might have been.

Her mentor was slightly pissed by the fact that the Organization still didn't tell their trainees about things like that. So she had to explain it herself: "You know, that we turn into a Yoma if we surpass the limits of our Yoki, am I right?"

Hysteria nodded.

"That's bullshit."

"Huh?"

"If a warrior like you or me overuse our Yoki, we lose our human minds and our body mutates into something far worse than a Yoma," she explained.

"An Awakened Being, I assume?" she asked and got a nod as an answer briefly after.

Hitomi started walking again and was closely followed by Hysteria. The latter felt a bit uneasy about the Awakened Being but felt safe with Hitomi around.

The elder warrior noticed her uneasiness and tried to reassure her young companion: "Do not worry. I have plenty of experience fighting Awakened Ones. The two of us together will be enough to take it down, it does not feel that strong. However, we have to take care of the small fry first. They will only get troublesome during the fight with their leader. I essentially planned to let you watch me to see how to take care of multiple opponents, but the way it is I will need your assistance. Are you ready for that?"

Hysteria thought about it for a moment but then, as they entered the village, drew her blade and enthusiastically shouted: "I am!"


	7. Chapter 6: Liara vs Anna

Author's Notes:

Thank you everyone who has reviewed! And also, sorry for taking so long this time around.**  
**

I was so kind to introduce new characters as well as throwing in a new plot thread that will reveal some of my own ideas about the Organization later on. I also tried to wright action scenes a bit differently, I hope that you all enjoy it.

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Liara vs. Anna**

Hysteria was heavily breathing as the Awakened Being finally died due to its many wounds. Around her was a battlefield filled with blood and Yoma body parts, created by her and her companion, Hitomi.

The latter, however, was in no condition you'd call new. Her bad sensing abilities had a bad impact on her, as, while she was already about to attack the Awakened One, a Yoma managed to sneak up behind her and impaled her chest with its fingers. Luckily Hysteria was there fast enough to save her life, but still her right lung was far from functioning correctly. Again.

The taller warrior lay face down on the ground, her hand still firmly gripped around her sheathed sword's hilt. As she was sure that everything actually was over, she let go of it and tried to at least sit up, but only ended up coughing a lot of blood.

Hysteria regarded the mess her mentor was in as she walked up to her. She was not uninjured either, but was at least able to walk on her own. She kneeled down next to her comrade and non-gently poked into her ribs on her right side, making her yelp in pain.

"See?" she began her lecture, "I told you that something like that would happen if you ignore a Yoma! You always end up in a mess, how could you survive this long? You're slowing us down!"

Through gritted teeth Hitomi managed "Shut up, Shorty!" before getting poked by Hysteria, what caused her to cough, again.

"And I told you, didn't I? I have a name, so use it already!" the much younger warrior complained.

"Ts," her mentor sizzled. "Just be so kind to ***cough*** drag me into one of the hou..." she added but was interrupted by her coughing.

Hysteria heaved Hitomi upon her shoulders and carried her into one of the houses where she let Hitomi fall on her back like a bag of spuds, very little to Hitomi's delight. She groaned and grimaced in pain due to the impact.

"You little..." she groaned, but was interrupted by a very arrogant Hysteria: "No complaining. You should be thankful! Without me you were dead, you know? Be a little more thankful!"

Well, actually Hitomi would be in best condition if it weren't for Hysteria. Even though she was a really good fighter already, her defense was like a garden without a fence. Basically Hitomi was acting as a shield for her all the time, therefore ending up in a mess in all eight villages they had cleaned of Yoma, excluding the one they were in, so far.

That time was no different, because Hysteria's task were the Yoma. Some of them, however, were still running about while she happily was going after the Awakened Being already. Hitomi, practically unable to sense anything due to around forty Yoma and an Awakened Being they were fighting, took Hysteria's action as a guarantee for her having finished off all the Yoma. That was a mistake, as she painfully had noticed.

In fact, she and Hysteria weren't getting along at all. The first time Hysteria saw Hitomi fighting, she instantly began to complain about how ugly it looked. Hitomi was "brainlessly slashing around", so were Hysteria's words. She herself, of course, was an elegant fighter with a beautiful technique that Hitomi should learn of. The kind of people Hitomi hated most – arrogant little brats. Oh, as soon, as their job would be finished, she would so teach that "little shit" a lesson.

For a moment Hitomi thought about telling Hysteria again, that Hitomi's condition was her fault, but decided against it, knowing, that it would be like talking to a wall. Hysteria was absolutely unable to take critic, found, that she, and only she, always was right and that everyone with another opinion than hers was just an idiot. Hitomi herself was not sure, if Hysteria actually was a bitch, or if it just was puberty.

Either way, she hated it. She had rather gone on that job by herself instead of having to watch over a defenseless girl with a trap that made the Grand Canyon seem tiny. She sure had enough strength to support it, but was far from being as skilled as her position suggested.

Luckily there was only one nest left for them to clean up. At first Hitomi thought that there was something fishy with having ten Yoma nests that each were led by an Awakened Being, but for whatever reason they did not seem to have a connection whatsoever. At least, neither of the groups showed any sign of caring or even noticing for the other bases to be annihilated by Hitomi and Hysteria. To Hitomi it seemed more like they were surprised seeing warriors sent after them.

As she looked to her left she found Hysteria, sleeping, leaned against her blade.

"Honestly," Hitomi chuckled a bit, "look who's exhausted already. I'm lying around here, beaten half to death, and yet you are the one to fall asleep even before dusk. Still a child, it seems."

Her condition had bettered a bit. She was an offensive type, so healing was rather exhausting, but she had enough experience, due to an asshole of an author always getting her lung damaged, to at least heal the dangerous wounds and therefore had her lung intact already.

"Time to get some sleep myself," she whispered to no one in particular, closed her eyes and waited for the darkness to carry her away.

###

The sun had set many hours before as he was still walking through the forest. At night it was nearly silent, only a few animals could be heard. The most noticeable sound was Orsay's cloak that dragged over the forest floor, making leaves rustle every now and then.

Fall had began, so some trees were already decorating themselves in red, orange and yellow. The envious wind, however, did its best to blow their leaves off.

"Aw man," he sighed, "I'm getting into that mood again, it seems."

The mood he was talking about was basically his "Liara has done crap again"-mood. That time, however, it was worse. The Organization finally had enough of his favorite warrior's comrade's sudden deaths and had finally decided to find out if it really was her doing or just pure coincidence.

Orsay didn't know himself if she actually was killing her comrades to clear their ranks to take them herself. It did not even matter much to the Organization, as long as the victims weren't Single Digits. However, Liara was number 12 then, so it was, if the rumors about her were true, likely for her to go after the first Single Digit she saw.

So the Organization thought to just put her into a hunting party together with one that wouldn't hurt losing – number 9, in that case.

Despite being a good warrior and a born leader, she had gotten rather nosy and had started to ask bothersome questions. So whatever the case – Liara killing her or not – would not be a problem.

Of course they'd have the both women monitored. By an upcoming warrior with rather good senses. No second Jacqueline, but enough to do the job. Accompanied she was by The number 5 at that time, also a young talent, but with far less potential than Hysteria or Hitomi had. Still she was send together with the trainee to take care of Liara if the rumors were to be true.

Though being still a trainee – a troublesome, at that, because she tended to run away – she had great talents with nearly everything and was, in case Hysteria wouldn't do as number 1, also a candidate for that spot.

After endless hours of walking around in the dark Orsay had finally found, what he was looking for: a campfire's light.

He accelerated his steps a bit to find Liara leaned against her sword in her usual fashion: cross-legged and with folded arms. She was sleeping and, even if faintly, snoring.

Orsay chuckled. He remembered very well how Liara had reacted to him telling her that she was snoring. It took him the better part of an hour, world-class diplomacy and a keg of red wine to make her talk to him again.

He sat down, too, leaned against a tree, sitting in the same way Liara always did.

He gently smiled while regarding his friend, but soon his smile vanished, leaving a touch of concernment on his face.

"You better not be killing your comrades" he whispered to her, even though she couldn't hear him. "I do not want to lose you... again..."

###

_He took a deep breath of the salty sea air around Havel, one of the few towns in Baden having a port. The ado was busy as always: ships were loaded and unloaded, freights of all kinds were carried from a to b over c and back and your occasional drunken seaman was staggering around._

_He himself was there to enter a ship. That day should be the day to greatly change his entire life, but he was not yet aware of that. All he knew was basically that he was going to an island far away to research something. That he was thought to stay there as long as necessary, and hell, he would stay there a very long time, was not part of his knowledge. He was a young lad willing to see the world, after all, so he basically didn't even care that much._

_He was dressed in a black cloth cloak. The color black was what acted as a distinctive feature for the people willing to join the expedition _Yoma_. For the details he did not care much._

_How little did he know..._

_Next to him there was a girl in her teens that refrained from letting go of his cloak. With begging eyes she looked up to him. He just kept gently stroking his younger sisters hazel hair that she had always bound into two pigtails. Green, moist eyes were meeting her brother's calming brown eyes._

"_Do you really have to go?" she asked with a bidding voice._

"_No worries, sis. I'll be back before you know it" he tried to convince her._

_How little did he know..._

###

It had been about seventy years since then. His sister most likely was death – and he hoped that she had not fallen into the hands of the Organization – the very same Organization he had unknowingly became a part of.

What had happened to him on that ship, how disgusted he felt as he first heard about what their objective was and how fast he actually got along with it were things that he neither wanted to remember nor cared to understand. In no time he had become one of those monsters. And then he met Liara.

And suddenly he felt that he was human again. Memories about his long forgotten sister had started to penetrate his mind. He instantly feared that she was his very sister but was truly relieved as he found out that she was not. Still he projected all of his memories, all of his love and care for his sister on Liara.

And there she sat, sleeping like a baby. Was she a murderer, craving for their comrades ranks? Or was she just a warrior, lucky enough to always be the sole survivor?

Orsay didn't know. He didn't know a damn thing about the only person in the world he actually cared for. That was the bitter truth he had to admit to himself.

After he had sat there for a while he decided to wake Liara. The rumors did not leave him alone. He needed to know. And he needed to know now.

Liara suddenly felt a gentle shaking, much like being rocked in a cradle. Her eyes opened and she saw Orsay's faces inches away from hers. She blinked once. She blinked twice. Then her look turned into a mix of skepticism and disgust.

"What... are you about to do?" she asked him in a deep voice.

"We need to talk. Now!" was the answer he gave her.

His face was overwritten with honesty. An honesty that Liara misinterpreted. Slightly.

Thousands of thoughts ran through her head that made her face bit by bit turn from a pale skin tone to the red of fresh blood.

'His face – so close to mine. This honesty in his eyes and face, that urgent need to talk to me. What is he thinking? Of course, we know each other quite a while, and I kind of like him, even though he can be really mean sometimes, but I never thought that he would have _that_ kind of feelings for me. Oh my god, oh my god, what am I? I... I..."

"I'm not ready!" she stated loudly.

Silence.

"Ready for... what?" a dumbfounded Orsay asked her.

More Silence.

"You are... not going to confess to me?"

Even more silence.

"How old are you again?" Orsay asked with a monotone voice and a very cloudy expression.

"Can we pretend that never happened?" Liara asked sheepishly.

Orsay just sighed, arose and took his former seat again.

Some time had passed as Liara, still slightly blushed, spoke up: "So what is it then that you want to talk to me about?"

"There are rumors," he deadpanned, before his face turned concerned, "that you kill off warriors in higher ranks in order to raise your chances for promotion."

Liara's blush vanished, together with all the color her face had. Orsay luckily didn't notice that she had given away herself due to the darkness. Still she turned her face away from him.

Without much emotion, facing the ground, she quietly asked: "What if?"

Exactly what he had feared. Liara actually was doing what the rumors told.

"How many?" he asked.

"Nine."

"For the sole purpose of being promoted?"

"Yes."

Orsay's left hand grabbed the upper part of her bodysuit and pulled her up. Before she had time to react she was hit to the ground by Orsay's right hand.

She sat up and held her aching left cheekbone while teardrops were forming in her eyes.

Orsay kneeled down in front of her and roughly grabbed Liara's upper arms, putting quite a lot of pressure on them.

He shook Liara a few times while emphatically hissing at her: "Are you out of your mind? They will dispose of you if they find out that you actually are doing that!"

She looked away from him again while fighting her tears. She sniveled: "But... if I... if I can't become number 3... they'll be disappointed." She directed her gaze towards Orsay again and then energetically blubbered out: "I don't want that!"

Orsay had to loosen his grip at that. In her head she still was pretty much a child. Killing... endangering her life for a promise that she most likely was the only one of those three who still remembered.

He had no choice but to embrace the silly warrior in front of him. While pushing her tightly against him with his right hand around her waist he pulled her had close to his shoulder with his left hand.

With a voice unknown of him, even by Liara, he said: "Stop doing such dumb things. I don't want to lose you."

At that Liara threw her arms around him and started to cry uncontrollably.

###

The closer she got to her destination, the more excited she got. Orsay had warned her thoroughly about not killing her comrades anymore. Liara had listened and really wanted to not disappoint Orsay either, but for some reason that determination grew smaller and less important by the minute.

She could already sense her comrade that was already waiting for hear outside of a town. With her hearth beating stronger with each beat she steadily approached her.

###

"She's approaching her. They will meet any minute now" the slightly shorter girl stated.

"I can see that. Don't lose focus" her comrade, also still in her teens, answered.

The two girls were positioned on a grassy hilltop roughly eight miles away from their targets of surveillance. While one of them saw with her senses, the other saw with her eyes.

The girl sensing their targets still wore her trainee's uniform. Her long, wavy hair was bound into a ponytail, leaving just a few strands of her bangs to frame her face. She only wore the skin tight, light gray trainee uniform. She smiled a little while monitoring their targets.

The other girl, half a head taller than her comrade, was a full fledged warrior already. Despite being only fifteen years of age she already was number 4 of the Organization. She wore her straight long hair loose and only had her bangs cut a little to not have them hang in their face all the time. She wore the standard warrior uniform with three-ply pauldrons to mark her as one of the Top 5. She could see what happened with her own eyes, a specialty that gave her the nickname "Eagle Eye".

Right next to them there sat a man wearing a black cloak and cloth around his face that only revealed his eyes. He was the one the Organization mostly put in charge of scouting missions. For the moment he kept just listening to the reports of the ones with him.

"They've met" the trainee stated. "Their targets also are aware of them."

"I can confirm that. There is movement in the town near them."

That also caused no reaction in the third spectator. To him the outcome was important, nothing else. Even though there was more than one possible outcome, he basically had to accept either one.

'Anna and Liara,' he thought, 'that might be really interesting. If that bastard warned her? Very likely, I guess...'

"They are engaging the Yoma. Twelve left... eleven..." the younger warrior started to take count.

Her comrade, slightly in disadvantage due to her not being able to see through opaque objects, decided to see as many as possible, but to rely on the trainee's statement.

"Ten... Nine... Seven..." the latter continued her count.

"Six... four... three... one..." she continued as everyone watched.

'Of course,' the Man in Black thought on, 'that is no challenge to either of them. The aftermath will be the interesting part. If there is one, that is.'

###

Around them there were neatly bisected body parts of Yoma lying around and, if one would not have known their numbers, it would have taken him ages to figure out how many they were. Anna and Liara had effortlessly turned them into a pile.

Liara slowly led her eyes wander from left to right, as if she hoped that there would be more. But in vain, their targets were dead.

Sighing she sheathed her blade and complained: "Again a day wasted on weaklings..."

Still, there was the Organization's number 9, Anna. Liara had no means of knowing when she would be able to meet such a person again. She supposedly was the weakest of the Single Digits, her first step into those ranks. But there still was Orsay's warning... and she had promised him.

'But when, if not now?' she asked herself, while Anna turned around and asked her to accompany her for a bit, since their respective handlers would be waiting together.

They passed the town gates while Liara still was gauging the odds. She knew that she was under surveillance, so if she were to attack Anna, she would give the Organization the prove they needed to have her executed.

Still, the only one she knew of that could sense her without being sensed by herself, was Jacqueline. And, due to a very talkative comrade, she had got to know that said warrior was busy going against Luciela of the south.

'They have only her,' she thought to herself, 'so,' she concluded, 'they can't be monitoring me.'

Having gauged the odds thoroughly as always, she wasted no second thought and drew her blade, what made Anna stop in her tracks.

She turned around to the warrior walking a few meters behind her, sighed, and drew her blade, too.

"So the rumors were true?" she asked Liara with disgust in her eyes.

"Basically, yeah," her comrade deadpanned.

"May I ask your reasons?" Anna wanted to know.

"Gotta keep a promise. None of your concern" she answered.

###

"They are fighting!" the trainee stated matter-of-factly.

"Surprise, surprise," her comrade answered.

"I see," the Man in Black said while arising, "please keep me informed on everything that might be interesting."

"Understood," the both girls answered.

###

Liara intended to take Anna head on. She knew well that a Single Digit would be far beyond an easy enemy and therefore wanted to end it quickly.

She ducked under an horizontal swing from Anna to attack her with a vertical swing from below, just to find Anna gone the moment her blade struck. She was in mid-air, already on her way down again, seeking to split Liara's head in two, but Liara blocked the fierce attack with her blade. The force, however, was strong enough to bring her to her knees.

Using a bit of Yoki she raised her own power to push Anna away. That only seemed to work at first, because Anna was, without touching the ground, rushing towards Liara again already, leaving her little time to react. Her attempted block failed and wound opened up on her left shoulder. She ground her teeth in pain but still managed to get away from Anna with a fast move.

It took Liara some moments to swallow that her opponent just had changed the direction of her movement in mid-air. With things as they were that was going to be a tough fight.

Anna had no intentions on letting Liara think for a way out, leaped into the air, just to somehow find herself something solid there to land and shoot towards Liara again. That time she was fast enough to jump away, making Anna impale the ground rather than Liara's chest.

For the moment, Liara could only thing of one thing to do, something, that was always a help in battle when she didn't know what to do – zigzagging around like a lunatic.

Due to the very random pattern Liara did that at, Anna had, despite trying, very little luck in landing another hit. That was not the only problem: Liara got, on a regular basis, close enough to attack Anna, what the latter could avoid by leaping away in time.

Anna could not do anything much. She tried to figure out the pattern of Liara's technique – and yes, she actually considered it one – because she knew that every attack had a pattern, however complex it might have been. So she kept leaping around between ground and air while still trying to keep track of Liara, while occasionally crossing blades with her, to no effect on either side.

That was, until they hit each others blade with enough bad luck but fury to smash it out of each others hand, making both of them stopping short in their tracks.

Both of them were panting while they looked each other in the eyes to find any sign of weakness, lack of determination and the like to make use of. In vain. Both of them had no intention of losing to the other. In Anna's case that simply was because she had no intentions of dying. To Liara it was her promise that kept her going. If she did not have it, she would not have anything else, or so she thought.

"An interesting... technique you've got there," Liara gasped. "Did I get it right... compressing Yoki to a degree to basically solidify the air in order to use it as a foothold."

"Yeah," Anna answered out of breath, "that's about it. Your technique's not that bad, either. Zigzagging around to no visible pattern to avoid being hit as well creating chances to strike yourself."

"A technique?" the pig tailed warrior stumbled. "Don't even consider it one."

"You should. It's worth working on" Anna praised her with no visible expression.

###

"The fighting has stopped."

"Yes, they are talking."

"So when exactly are you to take measures, Wendy?"

"As soon as Liara kills Anna. Not a moment sooner."

"I see."

Ermita looked into the same direction as the hybrids accompanying him. Thought he couldn't see anything, he still had a clear picture of them in mind, due to the reports of the girls that were with him.

'It would be good if Anna could solve that matter with words. I'd rather have none of them dead. Best case scenario.'

###

The two warriors had gotten their respective claymores back and were facing each other again, blades still drawn.

Anna explained her view of things: "As of now, Liara, none of us has the upper hand. To what degree that changes when we use Yoki, is pure speculation as of now, even though I have a bit more of it. I say we stop this here and now."

Anna was right and Liara knew that. Knowing how her Yoki affected her, she was sure that Anna would get the upper hand in an all out battle. Yet she also had done nothing that would ultimately proof that she was killing comrades to rank up. Even though if the Organization had other _Eyes_ at hand, they could only tell that the two of them were fighting.

Liara closed her eyes, sheathed her sword and opened them again to meet Anna's gaze.

"You are right," she stated, "fighting you was proof to me that I am able to put up a fight against the supposedly weakest of the Single Digits, but defeating you would be up to luck. And, since rumors about my behavior have started to spread, I think that is no longer going to be how things work."

"I could tell the Organization, you know?" the warrior with braided hair said challengingly.

Liara took a deep breath to think before answering: "I have got the feeling that you won't."

Anna raised an eyebrow: "And you base that on what?"

Liara just smiled and, while walking past her, calmly said: "The gods are with me."

###

"They parted ways" the young trainee stated.

"Confirmed. No sings of another conflict" Wendy agreed with her younger comrade.

Ermita turned around and started to walk away.

"That's a relief," he stated, "would have been bad seeing my children cut each other to bits. Thank you for your work, Wendy, Teresa."

Both of the girls saluted, shouting: "Aye, sir!"

* * *

Author's Notes:

Next time we'll basically be having Hitomi/Hysteria, stay tuned for anything else.

_kstefan88_


	8. Chapter 7: The arrogant will fall

Author's notes:

Thank you again to everyone who has read and especially to Ann E. Casap, shelter and YugannaMirialover who have reviewed on this story.

This chapter, as promised, centers around the relation between Hysteria and Hitomi but also will reveal something else that might be surprising. And I tried to add something funny, I hope that you'll like it. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 7 – The arrogant will fall**

Hitomi awoke early in the morning. While getting up she yawned loudly. Her eyes tried to blink the sleep out of her face, what took her a while.

Palpating the spot she had been wounded in for a bit she felt that the wound had fully healed already. Relieved at that she began to attach her armor, totally ignoring the fact that Hysteria was still sleeping.

Though being the one that was not hurt she still was a child, after all, and had a great talent in acting as if she was not tired despite being close to falling asleep standing. So it had happened the day before: after energetically lecturing Hitomi she fell asleep in no time, despite Hitomi being the one with a serious wound that needed rest rather than her.

Hitomi didn't care to wake her comrade. In fact, she considered leaving her behind, taking care of the rest herself and then returning, as if nothing had happened. On the other hand she was worried about Hysteria getting herself in danger – and at that she was really good, too.

"Honestly," she whispered while looking at her with an honest face, "if you don't change that attitude of yours, you won't live long. Planning on making someone like you a number 1? Not in a hundred years!"

She then decided to look around the village for something to eat since Hysteria would be sleeping for at least another hour.

As she reached the door she turned around and hissed "Look who's slowing us down _now_!"

Suddenly she had gotten into a bad mood again. She had never before felt something that she would have called hate, but then she was not so sure about if her feelings for Hysteria were of that kind. Hysteria did not even try to get along with Hitomi. She basically was mocking Hitomi whenever there was a possibility.

After she had found a bit of rather old bread she decided that it was better than nothing and returned, where she, to her surprise, found a fully armored Hysteria – that was impatiently tapping with her right foot while having her arms folded.

Angrily she snorted at Hitomi: "It is damn time that you get here! What were you doing? And what is that rocky thing you are carrying around?"

Hitomi closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and, with a deep voice said, as calmly as possible: "Bread."

"Bread?" was her answer. Hysteria walked up to her, knocked onto the bread a few times and concluded: "Definitely a rock."

Grinding her teeth Hitomi ripped the brown loaf into two and pushed one half of it rudely against Hysteria's chest.

Through gritted teeth she hissed: "Eat or starve. And don't dare to complain another time!"

Uncomprehendingly the girl looked into Hitomi's boiling gaze, took the bread and asked: "Got up on the wrong side of the bed today?"

Hitomi just turned around, walked over to a window and started to rip pieces out of her bread to eat them.

Hysteria did not quite understand what was going on. To her it felt like Hitomi was mad at _her_, but that was ridiculous! It was not like she had done something wrong. It was Hitomi's fault for being beaten up every time and for them to take that long for their job. As a good comrade, she thought that she should talk with Hitomi about her mistakes in order for her to not make them again – and to motivate her by telling her how to do things right.

So she walked up to her from behind, still holding her bread with both hands, sheepishly asking: "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Don't get near me" a menacing voice threatened, making Hysteria stop.

"Huh?" she asked, "what kind of problem do you have?"

At that Hitomi let her bread fall down. Hysteria could feel a sudden rise of Hitomi's Yoki that made her take a few, cautious steps backwards.

"H... Hitomi?" she stuttered nervously.

"The problem?" she groaned. "The problem that _I_ have?" she groaned even louder while clenching her fists and starting to shake a little.

But no, that wasn't right, she shouldn't let the anger control her! 'Calm down,' she kept thinking to herself and eventually managed to return her Yoki level to normal and get her boiling body under control again.

Hysteria's grip had fastened making the hard bread's crust crack. Alarm was written in her face. Her forehead was wet of sweat and she had a terribly tense feeling inside of her stomach. Hitomi's Yoki had a rather big impact on her mental side. Suddenly she wasn't so sure about talking to Hitomi anymore.

Hitomi turned around, took her claymore and coldly stated that it was time to do the rest of the job.

Without even thinking of protesting Hysteria took her blade, too, and the both of them left the house they were in.

###

In a distance that felt a bit more secure to her Hysteria followed Hitomi, not taking her eyes off her. They had quietly walked for nearly three hours. The much younger warrior was still tense and ready to leap away anytime. Hitomi's outburst had taught her some respect, that much was certain.

Hitomi just looked straight forward with a more calm expression than before. She knew that it was not the right thing to have Hysteria scared like that, but at least she would keep quiet then. Although she seemed calm, her inside was just a few degrees away from boiling and she felt damn sure that, whenever Hysteria would say something mean again, she would hit the roof. So having her keeping her trap shut was the best thing then.

Around them there was nothing much, just endless numbers of deciduous trees that had began losing their leafs. The leafs that were falling occasionally hit Hitomi what not really abet her calming down. Hysteria just blanked them out since she needed all her concentration for Hitomi.

Still, it didn't feel right to her to approach an enemy in a situation like that. Her mentor obviously had no intentions of solving that matter, still it would hinder their fighting if they were like that. And, as she could sense, they'd need to fight together that time – the Awakened One that was with around twenty Yoma seemed dangerously strong to her. Something had to be said, but what?

The girl was afraid of making her mad again. She was not so sure anymore if Hitomi actually was weak. She got beaten up all the time, that much was true, but surely not because of her being incapable of fighting – her Yoki outburst had proven to Hysteria that she was a strong person, maybe as strong as herself.

Still it made no sense having someone like that beaten into half-death condition whenever they were fighting one of the ten nests of which only one remained. Was it due to the high number of Yoma that she couldn't handle at once? Had she not enough fighting experience to make proper use of her strength? Hysteria had no idea and knew, that only talking to her would open the possibility of her getting an answer – and maybe even keeping her from getting hurt badly the following time.

Fear had still the better of her, but after all Hitomi was her comrade, so she had to risk having her mad if that could help.

She took a deep breath, stopped in her tracks and carefully cleared her throat to not offend her if possible. That made Hitomi also stop.

Without turning around she loudly whispered: "What?"

Her apprentice took all her courage together and bravely said, stumbling over her tongue a few times: "I... think that... I got that you are mad... and I... really want to change that! We are approaching a strong enemy, so I thought..."

"What?" she got cut off.

That cracked her bravery a little bit, but still she continued with determination: "We should get along as good as possible! I don't know why you are angry, I admit that! But please tell me so we can change that! I really think that it is not..."

Without warning a hand roughly grabbed her head and pushed it back for her startled gaze to meet a gaze that was constantly shooting daggers at her.

Beads of sweat were forming on all her pores and she felt her blood leaving her face in panic. She gulped while inwardly cursing herself for having tried to talk to her mentor.

Too soon. Hitomi regarded her for a while and saw the impact that her sole presence had on her comrade. She sighed loudly and closed her eyes while leaning her head back. She _was_ a kid, after all.

As she met Hysteria's gaze again she stated as calmly as possible: "Listen, shorty," she paused, waiting for Hysteria to poke her, what did not happen, "no, Hysteria."

That made the young warrior's heart jump for a bit, having Hitomi actually use her name.

"I have told you many times: your defense is a non-existent thing. You are not able to take orders and you never listen to anyone who has a different view of things than yourself. You are strong, of course, and you are going to become even stronger. But you have to change your attitude. I am not telling you your mistakes to make fun of you! My job is to turn you into a warrior capable of going on missions on her own and that is all that I am doing. If you don't cooperate because you feel huffy for being lectured that is not going to work! Honestly, if I wanted to hurt you, I'd just beat you up."

It took Hysteria some time to process that input. There she did it again! Covering her own incapability by putting the blame on her! Talking to that person really was of no use was what Hysteria had figured.

Hysteria gritted her teeth and then shouted: "Why are you still saying that? Can't you accept your own mistakes? Stop putting the blame on me!"

She had done it. Again. Hitomi abandoned her task of looking after her as the rage took over. Her Yoki was erupting and she reached fifty percent in a split second. Hitomi's face was distorted, her eyes shone golden and her fingers had turned into claws.

Her left hand was still holding Hysteria's head. She raised the pressure and lifted Hysteria to her eye level.

An Hysteria's arrogant attitude was smashed to bits by Hitomi's look. She quivered heavily and could neither say a word, nor think.

A guttural voice growled at her: "what enough is..." she threw Hysteria away nonchalantly, "IS ENOUGH!"

Her right hand grabbed her weapon's hilt and, leaving an afterimage, she appeared close to Hysteria who was still unable to act due to the shock. Then Hitomi's technique that easily surpassed even the speed of the top ranks began to slowly cut Hysteria away from the outside to the inside: the _Soundcutter_.

Hysteria's skin got torn to bits while she tried to comprehend the situation she was in. Hitomi had close to absolutely lost it and, if not stopped, would most likely completely mince the one she was supposed to protect. Before Hysteria could realize that, however, her survival instinct took over and let her release as much as fifty percent of her Yoki herself. With the newly won force she managed to dash out of Hitomi's range and to heal most of her wounds due to them being small.

As Hitomi stopped her attack after having noticed Hysteria being gone, an enormous blast wave spread out that nearly knocked Hysteria away, but she managed to remain standing. Hitomi had closed in to her again already to start her attack again. That time, however, Hysteria's instincts told her to answer back and so two blades of immense speed began to clash while spraying sparks to no end.

Much to Hitomi's surprise Hysteria was actually close to keeping up her own speed, but still she did not stay uninjured. She was able to parry most of Hitomi's strikes but had no means of answering to all of them. Hysteria soon became aware of that and pulled back, causing Hitomi to stop her attack and therefore create another blast wave. That time Hysteria was prepared and kept a steady stand.

Since Hitomi was using her best technique, Hysteria decided, even though it was far from being perfect, to use her very own technique, too. The moment Hitomi was close to her and about to use her technique again, Hysteria greatly increased her speed to suddenly rush past Hitomi. As Hitomi's superior speed, it also left an afterimage that looked like it was slipping right through Hitomi's body. A technique that she later would name _Elegant Step_.

For a moment both of the warriors were just standing there, their backs facing each other. A wound opened on Hitomi's right shoulder. It had cut through her right collarbone and a lot of muscles (but it left her right lung intact) what led to her right arm being of no use anymore. Hitomi grimaced and groaned slightly because of the pain, but didn't show any further reaction besides pushing her right arm against the side of her chest with her left hand. In her right hand she was still holding her blade that she had to draw as Hysteria suddenly attacked her.

Hysteria collapsed as a sea of blood splattered out of two wounds that formed a cross on her chest. Her Yoki had went to normal the moment Hitomi had hit her.

'I see,' she thought. 'You were right all the time.'

Hitomi turned around to regard her comrade. She was already healing her shoulder and had a satisfied grin on her face.

"See?" she said contentedly. "Told you so."

###

The day before...

Two women were resting at a nice campfire that was the only thing to illuminate the night. They had found themselves a nice spot near a forest glade where they were enjoying a bit of rest from their journey that far.

About twenty meters away, in the clearing, there sat their comrade that was guiding them towards their target. At that time, however, she had different things on her mind. She was monitoring a friend of hers that had happened to also have a job to do in the southern lands of Mucha.

The both of them had gotten to know each other on a mission that was meant to give the Retrieval Squad of the Organization access to the sample of an Awakened Being. Its grave was protected by one of the woman's comrades.

She had not wanted for her former comrade's grave to be defiled and therefore protected it. Through force and words she was kept from doing so. The warrior that kept her, the one who was sitting in the clearing right then, got friends with her and was then watching over her friend with concern.

Vanessa, one of her comrades, had been watching Jacqueline's behavior for the week they had already been on their way and still had not gotten any idea why she always was placing herself away from the campfire. Since her other comrade, Neerie, was asleep, she decided to just ask her fellow warrior Jacqueline. So she arose and walked over to her, letting herself plop down right next to her.

After just sitting there for a while, staring into the same direction Jacqueline did, Vanessa still couldn't see anything, and plainly asked: "What y'lookin' at?"

She had noticed Vanessa the moment she had arisen and had already wondered about what she could have wanted. For a moment she thought about if she should tell her but then came to the conclusion that there would be no harm in it.

"A friend, nothing more" she explained.

Her older companion leaned forwards a bit and took a close look at Jacqueline's face. To not much result, though, because she always wore a mask completely impenetrable by whoever might have been looking at her.

While remaining in her position she suspiciously raised an eyebrow: "Concerned 'bout yr crush?"

That caused a reaction in Jacqueline's face, a reaction so small that Vanessa was not absolutely sure about it having actually been there or not. Still, for a moment she looked like someone who had his darkest secret exposed by some other person's lucky guess.

"No, she is just a friend" she stated convincingly.

"He, I see" Vanessa answered chuckling. "Has to be 'n important friend, if y'stalk her Yoki all the time, huh?" she added with a wide, catty grin on her face.

That moment a mental dagger shot through Jacqueline's chest.

A slight blush appeared on her still calm face as she stated: "I'm not... stalking her. I'm just... concerned, that is all!"

"And that is why you blush?" Vanessa shot back.

That moment a second mental dagger shot through Jacqueline's chest.

The color of her face turned darker again and also showed faint signs of her being embarrassed.

She wanted to say something to defend herself, as Vanessa aimed for the finishing blow: "Y'know, she'd be pissed if she'd knew that y'stalk her."

Mental Dagger number three.

Jacqueline was in utter distress. Just who was that woman and what did she aim for? She sure was right that Jacqueline had taken a liking in Hitomi during their long journey from the west to the east, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Warriors regularly didn't meet many people. And those they met were either rather unsightly Organization's man or other warriors. Someone without many social contacts tends to bind even stronger to the few persons he meets, so to a warrior at that time it was nothing special to form strong bonds with her comrades. So, naturally, Jacqueline had taken a liking in Hitomi.

Still, how did Vanessa know? And why was she trying to make Jacqueline admit it? And, the question that concerned Jacqueline even more, was: why was she embarrassed about it?

Vanessa then leaned towards Jacqueline, having her own face just inches away from Jacqueline's and, grinning even wider, dealt the finishing blow: "You totally have the hots for her!"

Jacqueline cracks with mental dagger number four.

It had taken Vanessa just a few lines to totally melt Jacqueline's untouchable facade away. As the latter stared onto the ground with her hands between her lags and a face that screamed "just kill me!" Vanessa showed an astonished face, as she said: "So I actually was right?"

###

A rather huge blast of Yoki made Neerie wake up. A short look into the direction it came from gave her a rough overview over the situation. Sighing, she arose and walked over to the scene.

There she found Jacqueline, standing, her Yoki and face having reverted to normal and, a few meters away from her, there lay a very passed-out Vanessa. Neerie squat down next to her and, looking a bit pissed, poked Vanessa with a stick what the latter requited with small twitches.

"Still alive?" Jacqueline asked.

"She reacts, so yeah. What did she do?"

###

"I see" Neerie stated while sitting leaned against her blade, looking into the campfire. "But you know, that is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Most likely," Jacqueline sighed, "but still it felt... strange having her hit the spot every single time. It's like she read my mind – and that made me feel uneasy."

Neerie smiled at that: "Vanessa has a talent with such things. Hiding something from her is close to impossible. If she gets the slightest idea of someone not being honest or not giving the whole truth, she gets on your nerves until you tell her everything. She has proven to you, that you don't have to tell her with words, though."

Jacqueline took a short look over to were a beaten up Vanessa was lying, thinking to have overdone it a little for a short moment, as Neerie spoke up again.

"I wonder, still... what does she mean to you?" she asked with the smile of a good friend that intended to help her if possible.

Jacqueline regarded her for a bit. She was not that good in seeing if a smile was honest or fake, but to her it seemed like Neerie was a person that she could trust. If Vanessa had posed a question like that Jacqueline would most like have beaten her up again.

So, taking a deep breath, she slowly started to tell all she felt like telling.

###

_Before I first met her I had to deal with a Black Card beforehand. That had taken a rather bad impact on me. Hitomi was, at that time, causing trouble for the Organization by protecting the grave of her dead friend. I was send to keep her from doing so. I inwardly prayed that I could solve that matter without having to kill another comrade._

_Even though we engaged in battle at first, I managed to make her unable to fight and to take her to the next town for her to rest. I really envied her for being able to protect a dead friend's grave - I didn't tell her, however. But I felt that there was something strong and honorable in her. Something of the kind that I do not possess. Somehow it is fascinating me._

_As I carried her to the town she fell asleep halfway. As I looked at her sleeping face I was embraced by a warmth that I had not felt before. For a while I just could not stop smiling._

_While she was resting I was told to take her to the Organization as soon as she was able to walk again. Then a journey of two months began. Well, we could have been faster if we had walked four days straight and then had rested for a few hours, but somehow we ended up resting nearly every night._

_We talked to each other nearly all the time. We told each other about our lives, about the ones we've loved and lost and we made fun of the Organization's people. On our way we even met Number 7, Tattletale Lisa, who provided us with... the newest... gossip... fuck. Now I know why Vanessa knew._

_However, we got along very well. I just was rapt by her prettiness and her plain but deep personality and all the things she had went through and to her I basically was the one who saved her life, because every other warrior would just have killed her on the spot. She even rested her head on my chest during one night..._

###

"I see" Vanessa chimed in, startling her comrades. "Wish I'd have popcorn."

"Pop... what?" a dumbfounded Neerie asked.

"Since when are you awake?" Jacqueline asked with a monotone voice.

Vanessa, noticing that Jacqueline was about to burst out again, diplomatically tried to calm her down: "Keep it cool, will y? And yeah, _Tattle_ told me. Y're all lovey-dovey. But so what? Whoever complains's just envious."

Jacqueline just sighed: "Whatever... we should go to sleep, tomorrow we'll walk fifty miles again."

Her comrades agreed and so the chatter fainted until all three of them were asleep.

###

The three of them were walking again. In less then three days they would be so close to their target Luciela that she would most likely be able to sense them. Jacqueline's focus lay elsewhere, though.

That morning she awoke due to a sudden outburst of Hitomi's Yoki. It was short and vanished soon, but she could still feel the anger insider of her. That way it had been since their respective missions had started. For some reason Hitomi almost every time got wounded and was mad afterwards, most likely at her comrade Hysteria, whose Yoki suggested her acting high and mighty.

However, it had gotten worse and Jacqueline feared that Hitomi's anger sooner or later would get the better of her.

Neerie, who was walking right of her, had noticed that Jacqueline had been acting more strange than usual and therefore asked her if something was wrong.

"Nah" she said, trying to convince herself more than Neerie.

She wanted to believe in Hitomi being able to keep her calm but the longer it went on the more she saw the chances for that shrink.

Then she stopped short in her tracks as she noticed a small stir in Hitomi's Yoki. She and Hysteria had stopped moving. With tension she watched as Neerie and Vanessa asked her what the matter was.

Then she felt Hitomi's Yoki rise to dangerous heights within a mere moment.

"Fuck" she said as her eyes widened a bit. Without warning she ran off into her direction.

"Hey, were y'going?" Vanessa shouted after her, but got no answer.

The both of them looked at each other, nodded once and then followed Jacqueline into the forest.

###

Stems were racing past her as she navigated herself through them. As soon as also Hysteria's Yoki had risen she also had started to accelerate her steps with Yoki. At an astounding speed of more than 110 miles per hour even the _Doublefingers_ had trouble in keeping up with her.

'Don't!' she kept shouting inwardly. 'Don't kill her, or...'

As she suddenly noticed a sudden flash of Hysteria's Yoki, followed by it receding completely, she arose her Yoki and her speed by twenty percent each.

"Fuck" she groaned through gritted teeth.

She knew that Hysteria was important to the Organization and as things looked, Hitomi had won the fight. Still, neither her anger nor her Yoki had calmed then and Jacqueline was afraid of Hitomi killing Hysteria. No matter, how she looked at it, that would absolutely have made the Organization have her executed. And that she had to prevent at any cost.

###

"Dammit, that girl's fast!" Vanessa complained. "What's she?"

Neerie had asked herself that question, too. Jacqueline was without doubt far more than a number 6. Even ignoring her excellent skills when it came to Yoki sensing, reading and even manipulating, she had a Yoki slumbering inside her that totally made up for her rather low baseline of strength and speed.

"Basically," Neerie concluded, "We could well call her number 1."

Vanessa looked at her partner for a moment, before sizzling and focusing on catching up with Jacqueline.

###

Hysteria still lay face down on the ground. She was busy keeping her consciousness as well as healing the wounds on her chest. She totally had underestimated Hitomi. And in addition to that, she had overestimated herself. Hitomi had been right all along: her offensive abilities were extraordinary, but her defense was nothing worth mentioning. That was the truth she didn't want to believe out of Hitomi's mouth, so she made her taste it through her blade.

Suddenly everything Hitomi had said made sense. It _was_ Hitomi who was protecting her by acting as a shield. Hitomi ending up badly injured _was_ Hysteria's fault. And therefore it _was_ Hysteria who slowed them down.

With teardrops in her eyes she whispered sobbing: "Im such a stupid blockhead!" More loudly she tried an apology: "You were right! All the time! I just didn't see it! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

Her shoulder was already healed. She impaled her blade into the ground and walked over to Hysteria who lay on the ground like a picture of misery. Finally having calmed enough Hitomi kneeled down next to her, shifted Hysteria on her back and, while gently smiling, made Hysteria's head rest on her lap.

"You see?" she explained. "I am not making fun of you. Trust in what I say."

"I will," Hysteria cried while covering her eyes, "I will!"

From afar, Jacqueline was watching. She was really relieved as she had seen that the battle had stopped and that the two of them were reconcile themselves.

"Thank you, god" she whispered.

With a wide smile she turned around and began hurrying back to her comrades. There still was a job to do.

* * *

Author's notes:

So much left to tell, but most likely a job will be finished next time.

_kstefan88_


	9. Chapter 8: Power shift

Author's notes:

Thank you again for the reviews!

That one was really difficult, so sorry for taking my time. Still I think that it turned out quite well and in the way I wanted. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Power shift**

Again the atmosphere was tense at the gates of what once used to be a town. Even though it still had inhabitants, it was not considered a town anymore. Its inhabitants weren't human. They were Yoma, the enemies of humankind. Two woman had come to kill them in order to keep them from spreading all around.

The Yoma already knew that they were the Organization's target due to their leader having sensed them from afar. So, instead of directly going after the two warriors sent to purge them, the Yoma hid themselves behind their leader.

Amidst around twenty Yoma there was standing a woman dressed in a warrior's uniform. It looked as if it was new, even the cape, the thing to get damaged the easiest about their uniform, was still intact. As Hitomi noticed the three-ply pauldrons, her eyes widened a bit. If that Awakened Being was still wearing the uniform that she had during her time as a warrior, then she was an Awakened Top Rank!

Her eyes looked at her former comrade's symbol: An horizontal line that had two circles attached to it: one left, one right. Hitomi had seen that symbol, about that she was sure... but where?

###

_For three days they had been waiting in a dark room, as one of them was pissed to a degree that she could not keep quiet anymore. "Can't we go on our own?"; "Why do we have to wait for her?"; "That boredom is killing me rather than the Awakened One!" was what she was complaining about._

_Another of the comrades also stated, that they were most likely waiting for nothing and that they should take action without her._

_It was on her nerves. Just what was those woman's problem? They were going after an Awakened Being, so of course they needed every comrade! At that time she felt like cutting them up to have a bit of silence, but still, no matter, how much she disliked it, they were her comrades. Waiting for their supposed leader to arrive was also part of the mission._

_Still, as they still did not want to shut up, suddenly the room went quiet as they saw Hitomi grabbing her sword's hilt. They knew exactly what would happen if she were to start her technique. It would hack every last thing in the room they were in to bits. Most likely including the walls. And them._

"_It's okay!" one of them stuttered. "We got it, we'll be quiet!"_

"_Fine," she answered, "instead of complaining so much you could have used your senses to see her. Even I can already sense her. It won't take long for her to finally arrive, so do me a favor and keep your traps shut."_

_Her comrades gulped. They knew that Hitomi was not one of the patient ones and that her _Soundcutter_ was the fastest technique amongst everything the warriors had at that time. Messing with her was nothing someone should do, especially not if her rank was not at least a Single Digit's. Hitomi might have only been number 11, but those who had met her knew, that she was very well fit for being a Single Digit._

_Finally the door opened another time, revealing the warrior they all had been waiting for: A woman of average height, having straight hair with a few red threads bound into it. Her three-ply pauldrons marked her as one of the Top 5._

"_I am sorry for being late," she apologized while bowing down to her comrades a bit, "but I ran into our target on the way, so I had to finish it on my own."_

_That left her comrades dumbfounded for a moment, because she basically was saying, that, firstly she had defeated an Awakened Being without getting scratched (at least she was completely unhurt) and secondly she was stating, that Hitomi and her two other comrades had waited for nothing since their target already was dead. Still, Hitomi's comrades did not even think about complaining because they were afraid of her wrath._

"_I see," Hitomi judged the situation, "since the job is done we may return to our assigned areas, am I right?"_

"_Oh, it's not that easy" her higher ranking comrade explained. "We already got a job in replacement. It is about another Awakened Being. I will still need your assistance."_

_'Most likely not' Hitomi added in her thoughts. "Since we are going on a hunt together, we should know each others names and ranks, as well as our experiences in hunting Awakened Ones, ain't I right, Captain?"_

_Their leader blinked a few times before getting that she was addressed and answered: "Ah well, yes. I am Olivia, currently the number 5. I stopped keeping count of the Awakened Ones that I have fought, but you may trust me that I know how to do it."_

"_I am Hitomi, currently the Organization's number 11. The Awakened Beings that I have killed should number around ten."_

_Also the other two girls introduced themselves, but had not gotten names, because the author didn't want to waste names on no-names._

###

"_A number 5 in an Awakened Being hunting party? That is rare, how come?" One of the warriors asked their leader Olivia, giving reasons for her question: "Isn't it normally a normal Single Digit, or someone with the strength of one, let's say Hitomi or that newbie Anna?"_

"_No, you are mistaken. To the Organization someone is either a Single Digit or a normal warrior. They don't differentiate between number 1 and number 9, as long as it is just about Awakened Being hunts. A Single Digit, three normal warriors, close to no exceptions. Sometimes, however, there are two Single Digits in a party. Then you can be sure to face an Awakened Single Digit."_

"_I see" her comrade answered. To her it was not her first hunt for an Awakened comrade, but she had never seen someone of Olivia's formats taking part in such a hunt and therefore felt a bit uneasy about their opponent. But she decided to trust Olivia's judgment – she had no other means, either way._

"_We're approaching it" Olivia suddenly stated. Two of her comrades went tense, Hitomi just grabbed her sword's hilt._

_Without much warning it attacked and slashed two of the comrades to bits in no time. Before Hitomi really knew what was going on, she found herself surrounded by tentacles with very sharp looking tips. However, she took away her opponents chance to defeat her easily by unleashing her fearsome technique, the _Soundcutter_. In a split second all of the tentacles around here were cut to small portions of flesh._

_She had no time to care about her two fallen comrades because she was busy keeping herself alive. And then, for a reason she did not know, she suddenly felt Olivia's Yoki rise to more than dangerous heights. She had surpassed her limits in no time._

_The soon her Yoki had risen, the soon their opponent was dead. Then there happened something that she had never seen before: Olivia returned her Yoki to normal, despite having crossed her limits, as if it was nothing._

###

"How could I have forgotten... Olivia _the Limitless_, if I remember correctly?" Hitomi asked the Awakened One in front of her.

"My, have we met before?" she was answered. Olivia regarded her for a while, but just had no idea who that woman was.

"How is your wound?" Hitomi asked her younger comrade while already getting a hold of her claymore's hilt.

"It is fine" Hysteria answered while drawing her blade. "Tactic?" she asked.

"It would be great having you take care of the small fry as fast as possible. Then I will need all your power to go against the Awakened One. Consider her power as the power a number one has. She is really dangerous" Hitomi declared how the fight should proceed.

Hysteria had listened especially well that time. She had finally understood that she only was alive due to Hitomi and therefore had decided to blindly trust her instructions. She mentally prepared herself for using her own technique several times to kill all the Yoma in no time.

"I see, you are actually going to do this... well then, no bitterness after you have died!"

Leaving an afterimage Hitomi appeared just inches away from Olivia to use her _Soundcutter_. The latter easily parried every single attack with her own blade while having a faint smile on her face.

While the two kept clashing Hysteria effortlessly took down one Yoma after another. They really tried to put up a fight, but against Hysteria that was utterly useless. One _Elegant Step_ after another – a great opportunity to practice that attack – chopped down one Yoma after another. They could not even hope of inflicting harm to her. That time she also paid close attention to kill all the Yoma.

As the last one fell she found herself a brief moment to regard Hitomi's fight with the former number 5, Olivia. The both of them were fast, faster than Hysteria was. In exactly what way Hitomi had intended her to help, was not clear to her, but still, she had to give her all. For nearly a minute she watched the attacks to find a pattern and suddenly had found one. Taking a deep breath she calculated the best moment to barge in – and then did so.

Even though being hit a few times, her strike still landed a hit on Olivia, bisecting her left arm in its entirety. Olivia instantly pulled away from them and muttered something incomprehensible about her missing arm, while already regrowing it.

"Fine," she then growled, audible for her two enemies, "since you are going all out, I will do so, too!"

Then, as she unleashed all her Yoki at once, her body began to transform into something inhuman. Reaching a height of more than three meters, she had taken the form of a grizzly bear that was disfigured by many spikes and tentacles that were shooting out on every spot of her body.

"A bear with spikes and tentacles? That was lame, Mr. author."

Shut up. Or would you have preferred something of Easley's size and shape, Ms. _Soundcutter_?

"Not really."

See, we understand each other.

Despite having a sturdy body, Olivia still was fast. In no time she stood in front of Hitomi and before the latter could react, she felt claws impale her right lung yet again. Olivia heaved her for their eyes to be on the same level.

"_Soundcutter_ Hitomi, if _I_ remember correctly. Weren't you the one with an attack so fast that even number 1 could not match it? So tell me, why am I, a mere number five, able to match it effortlessly?"

Hitomi coughed a bit and slightly groaned due to the pain, but still was able to mock her enemy: "Because I am still human, but you've become a monster. To think that you out of all people would awaken... guess you had not that much control as the rumors told."

At that Olivia's face darkened. Nonchalantly she threw Hitomi aside, making her hit the place they were on several times, leading to her crashing into a building.

Then she directed her view towards the warrior that had just gotten her rank, just to notice that she was vanishing in exact that moment. Then a wound opened on her chest, from her left shoulder to the right side of her waist.

"Fuck" she groaned, but did not get a chance to do something about her situation, as Hysteria's claymore impaled her hearth from behind.

"Fuck" she groaned yet again, before she collapsed in a sea of blood.

Hysteria watched the corpse of their enemy fall to the ground, before she ran over to Hitomi, who yet again lay on the ground in a condition she could not fight in anymore.

"Don't you dare open your mouth" she groaned.

Hysteria just laughed.

###

On a colorful meadow the Abyssal One of the south, Luciela, was standing, steadily looking into the very same direction. A gentle smile was on her face and the wind kept playing with her long, brown plaits and her ruby, ruffled dress.

"They are coming" she whispered to the wind. "It has been so long... for me to meet other warriors."

With an expression of deepest care on her face she started to walk towards the three presences that she was sensing.

"I have to warmly welcome them here" she whispered flimsily.

###

Suddenly Jacqueline, who had been monitoring Luciela, noticed that she had been sensed.

"She is coming. Get ready" she stated with a sudden sign of sincerity in her voice.

At that both Vanessa and Emily pulled both of their blades, the one with the symbol of the other in their strong hand.

"Was 'bout time" Vanessa stated with a grin.

"Don' take it too easy" Neerie lectured her with a more honest face.

Jacqueline then took the chance to exactly measure Luciela again. She had not changed noticeably, but Jacqueline herself had grown in her abilities and therefore considered to actually try and restrain Luciela's Yoki and therefore her movements.

Neerie noticed Jacqueline's calmness and the fact that she had not gotten ready for battle and asked her: "You are not going to use your sword?"

"Nah" she answered, "I will deal with restraining her. I can lower her speed and strength by about twenty percent. That is more safe than fighting her all out."

'More safe?' Neerie mused, but got distracted, as she suddenly felt a huge burst of Yoki, of the kind that she had never seen before.

Soon she could see the cause of it: An Awakened Being with the height of a three-story building, the shape of a cat standing on her hind legs and two jaws with deathly looking teeth on them.

For a moment even Vanessa was speechless, before she managed something like: "Dafuq's that?"

"It's her" their comrade blankly stated. "I'm counting on you."

Vanessa and Neerie looked at each other for a moment, nodded and then barged towards their target. Out of the 47 warriors they were the only ones permitted to use two blades each. Their special way of fighting gave them the strength to efficiently use them: due to being together all the time they had become a unit rather than two separate warriors. They are so used together that they could easily synchronize their Yoki to basically make it one. Neerie's strong hand was her left, Vanessa's strong hand her right. By synchronizing their Yoki they were able to use their comrade's weak hand as if it was their own, strong hand. So, basically, they were a unit of two warriors with two strong hands each. That was what earned them their nickname, the _Doublefingers_.

Luciela noticed at first glimpse that her opponents were no ordinary warriors but rather mostly the three strongest the Organization had at that moment. She felt honored to be visited by such people. As she saw two of the warriors rush towards her she got distracted by them and paid no attention to the other one anymore.

Howbeit, she soon noticed that Vanessa and Neerie alone were quite a bit to handle. Parrying their attacks soon felt unsafe to her because she had lost a few claws, so she decided to focus on dodging rather than parrying. Besides that would give her better chances to counterattack. No sooner said, than done, her huge body began, much to the surprise of her enemies, to evade their attacks with the grace of a gazelle. It also did not take long for her claws to change from defense to offense. However, the effect was not exactly what Luciela had hoped for. Something felt off.

Fifty meters away, a heavily huffing Jacqueline stood. She was bathed in sweat already.

'That Yoki... really is difficult to handle.'

She could feel her other senses haze as she focused on Luciela more and more. If it were to continue like this, she knew, that the fight was lost. Neither side would back down, but at that moment it was clear to her that she could not handle Luciela much longer. She even considered stopping it that moment, to take a breath and to unleash her own Yoki then, but was afraid that the short time Neerie and Vanessa would have to handle Luciela completely on her own might be enough for Luciela to irreversibly change the battle to her favor.

Meanwhile having released enough Yoki to having her face distorted, Neerie took a short glance to where Jacqueline was standing. 'Crap' she thought while barely evading Luciela's claws. 'She's getting to her limits.'

"Nessie!" she shouted out for her comrade after parrying a sweep of one of Luciela's tails that forced her to release even more Yoki to not be blown away.

"I know! What now?" was yelled back at her by a very pressed Vanessa.

As well as Jacqueline Vanessa knew that, without Jacqueline's assistance, Luciela would mince them. She had told them about the strain that even having a Yoki like Luciela's around was not good for her senses, no to speak of desperately trying to control it. The moment Jacqueline would have stopped it would have been over.

"I'll break the limit! Counting on you!"

Without much warning or time for Vanessa to react, she fully unleashed every last ounce of Yoki she had. Vanessa barely had time to react properly, but was able to pull her body back in the very last moment. It was a technique very similar to the Soul-Link, the technique that Luciela was a product of, a technique that Neerie and Vanessa had more or less discovered by chance. While completely synchronizing their Yoki and basically letting the partner handle enough of the Yoki to theoretically let its owner stay below the limit, one of them was able to release all her Yoki while the other had to stay around thirty percent, but still both of them were able to fight.

Jacqueline had been struggling more than Neerie was able to glimpse. At the moment Neerie's outburst came Jacqueline felt nearly blind and deaf. All her focus lay on Luciela – and then it came. It felt like her mind had been blown up completely, as Neerie had crossed her limits. Due to Luciela's huge Yoki and her focus on it she had not even sensed Neerie and Vanessa. Then, as if out of nowhere, a blazing light gave her head an unbearable pain. And then she lost it.

Neerie, not even aware of what she had done, finally was able to put up a fight against Luciela. Even though the latter had full control over her body once again, her opponent suddenly was able to cut her, even in dangerous places, if she would have gotten distracted for even a split second.

For Vanessa, things suddenly had become too fast. She had pulled back and watched in amazement what Neerie was capable of when fully unleashed. The opening that she was looking for wasn't there. If she would have gone back into the fight she most likely would have been caught in the crossfire, so she lowered her Yoki to the point where just her eyes were golden to be able to better focus on synchronizing with Neerie.

###

Without warning she suddenly was surrounded by nothing. Her eyes had left her, her ears had left her, her tactile sense had left her, her equilibrioception had left her. She was breathing, of that she was sure. But that was all there was to it. Even her ability of sensing Yoki had faded away.

But still, there was something off. There was something that shouldn't be there. She could not name it directly, but it felt like a presence. A presence of something that she had not felt before.

As if she could see anything, she hastily moved her eyes and head around to spot something, but was, of course, not able to spot anything. Just what was going on? Only moments before she had been in a battle with Luciela and then she suddenly had absolutely no clue of anything that probably was happening around her.

She tried to remember, what could have happened, but all that came to her mind was a sudden pain in her head. What had happened directly before and directly after it she couldn't remember.

_You seem lost, girl._

She was startled by that. Again, as if she could see, her head moved around hastily, but she could not spot anything. What was what she had heard? Or felt, to be more precise.

"Who is there?" she shouted.

_That story is long, do you have time?_

Even though the voice that felt like it was speaking to her mind directly felt soft and at ease, Jacqueline had of course no time. A battle against an Abyssal One had to be fought!

_Well, does not seem like it. Let me tell you that much: In a sense, I am you, in another sense, I am not. I am what made you what you are. I am the power that you keep on borrowing. And right now, well, you are borrowing a lot of it._

Just what was the voice talking about? What power... and what about being her? Could it be, that...

_I will make it simple: Your Yoki is neither a present of the gods, nor is it given to you by the Yoma you were created off. It's a power which origin you can't even try to guess. If you want to use it, I demand a tribute._

Who- or whatever was talking to her was nothing she could judge, but she understood quite a lot. A tribute... a tribute... "My... human soul?" she asked into the dark.

_Exactly._

"And if I am not... willing to give it to you?"

_'Demand' in that sense, did not mean that I ask you to give it. It meant that I will take it._

"I see... well, there have been others, demanding more. I wonder if you _can_ take it."

_You do not seem to get it. Right now, you are fighting something that you have no hopes of defeating, even with your comrades. Your comrades, by the way, have not noticed you passing what you are calling "the limits"._

"What? When... why?" she apalledly gasped.

_Oh, you did not notice? Well, I will explain it to you: While you have been so eager to not let Luciela have her way, you could say, your dear comrades failed to notice that you were at your limits and barely kept your senses together. In fact, you were about to pass out from the strain that keeping such a huge Yoki in check put on you. However, one of them decided to go all out Yoki-wise – and the effect was you, losing all your senses and suddenly passing your limits, too._

_As of now, I am so kind to keep your body under control. However, I won't do that for long. And, trust me, you have no idea what your body will do, if I let it go._

"But why are you helping... well, if I can call it that... me?"

_Guess, little lady. If you were any other warrior, I would have taken you and let your body go berserk. With you it is special. You have a strong will and a good handling of others Yoki. To a degree, if I may add, that I have not seen before. I have a deal to propound to you..._

"And that deal would be?"

_As of now, you are strong, maybe the strongest I have seen _here_ so far. Still, if I let you remain human, you will ripen... a lot more. So, if you accept my terms, I will let you save _one_ of your comrades._

Whoever was talking to her back then seemed to plot something including Jacqueline, that much was obvious. 'Let me ripen... at the cost of a comrades life?'

_You are hesitating, as I see. But think about it: as of now, if I would take your soul, you would kill, well, likely everything on that island you live on. If you take my offer it will take but one of your comrade's lifes._

"Who are you? Who can prove that you are not just a voice in my imagination?"

_That is about what I am. As I said, in a sense I am you, in another sense I am not. By the way, you should hurry your decision. Your fellow warriors are in a distress out there._

_So, will you take my offer?_

Jacqueline sizzled and then calmly stated into the dark: "I am not going to do as a voice in my head tells me."

_We will see about that..._

###

Suddenly she was back. Her senses worked again, but her Yoki was totally out of control. Grounding her teeth she kneeled on the ground and held her head that felt like shattering any second then.

She groaned something incomprehensibly guttural as she felt the anatomy of her upper back changing. Her hands had already turned into lethally sharp claws and her face barely resembled that of a human anymore. Parts of its skin had already been ripped of by her Yoki's inimitable force, leaving painfully looking wounds all over her face.

Her Yoki could not be brought back under control by her anymore. 'Turn back! Turn back!' she kept shouting inwardly, but neither her body nor her Yoki were responding to her. The only thing she managed to do then was to keep things from getting worse but returning was not possible.

_This is your last chance._

"Fuck... you!" she groaned with all her might.

_What a shame._

Blasting away the fittings for her blade including her loyal claymore, hundreds of thin tentacles, colored in a darkish blue, shot out of her back. Their blowback forced Jacqueline to bow down towards the ground, neither helping the pain in her head nor in her body to cease.

It was over, she had completely lost it. She still frantically tried to restrain her body but even though her skills of manipulating Yoki were the greatest in the history of the warriors it was not enough to keep up with her own Yoki, which, the way it was back than, almost could have been mistaken an Abyssal One's. She wanted to yell out to her comrades to run, but all she managed was an agonized scream accompanied by yet another mindblowing outburst of Yoki that instantly silenced the battlefield.

The moment Neerie realized what had happened to Jacqueline, she shouted to Vanessa: "Forget Luciela, _she_ is the bigger problem!" She began to rush towards her awakening comrade and left a very thunderstruck Vanessa.

Luciela had not failed to notice Vanessa's absentmindedness and took the initiative, slicing her neatly in two halves at the height of her abdomen, letting her barely living upper body fall down with a dull sound.

Neerie suddenly felt her human mind leaving her, but had no time to think about the reason – Jacqueline's uncontrolled tentacles had already penetrated her several times and one after another shot into her body like a needle.

Even though she already was at the verge of death Jacqueline could not stop but only watch what she was doing to Neerie, being released from that torture the moment her tentacles decided to rip her comrade to little shreds in one go.

Barely able to realize what she had done, she arose as tears began to roll down her face. With slow steps she began walking towards Luciela who was calculating the risk of going against Jacqueline. Even though she had not fully awakened her Yoki already rivaled her own.

She sighed: "Basically it would be safer to kill you now, but there is no guarantee that I can, even though that is hard to admit. Seems like I better leave... now."

Hastily she turned around and dashed away as fast as possible. 'Such monsters... can they really create something like that?' Luciela mused, while noticing that Jacqueline was not following her.

The tall woman had stopped walking towards Luciela the moment the Abyssal One had decided to run. Also her Yoki had calmed down all of a sudden and her body was back to normal.

_You are too valuable... You may stay human for a little longer, I got the soul I demanded._

* * *

Author's notes:

I think I got some good stuff going here - I hope I can turn it out as well as I imagine it ;)

Next time we'll have stuff from here and there and I may introduce another warrior that, up to now, only has been named.

Stay tuned!

_kstefan88_


	10. Chapter 9: A mad scientist's thesis

Author's notes:

So, thanks to vacations I was able to write that one here in basically one go. It's taking a turn that I hope will surprise you, but not disappoint you.

And again, thank you for the reviews!

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 9 – A mad scientist's thesis**

Two years had passed since the hunt on Luciela had taken place. To the Organization it was a black day because they had lost number 1 and number 2. The number 6 who was with them had not returned either, but her corpse was not found. The Organization believed that Jacqueline had awakened, basically giving them another monster with the strength of an Abyssal One to deal with.

After having learned in an unpleasant way that an Abyssal One was nothing to easily mess with, they decided to not interfere with them as long as they would not make a move. Since they also had no means of going after the supposedly awakened Jacqueline, they also did not care for her.

A lot had to be changed and rearranged in their ranks, but due to them having many young talents at hand they were able to maintain their power as the fourth strong fraction on that island beside the three Abyssal Ones.

Everything else had been like it had always been. Warriors were sent on jobs, some awakened and some died. Life just went on as if nothing had happened.

###

"Reporting in!" the man's words echoed through the Organization's meeting hall were Rimuto and the elders of the Organization were residing.

The words barely caught Rimuto's attention as he was busy looking through a few records, but still he let an unmotivated hum out to signal that he had recognized the man speaking to him.

"It has happened again" he began his explanation as Rimuto stopped short for a moment and then looked into his subordinate's angular face that was shrouded in shadows by his cloak's black hood. "Liara informed me that, yet again, the target of her hunting party was killed before they arrived."

Rimuto creased the reports in his hands a bit as he tightened his grip around them, before asking: "And the culprit would be?"

"Again, the warriors have sensed nothing" he had to admit.

After thinking for a moment his grip loosened again as he calmly spoke: "This has become a big deal here. If someone else finishes the requests we have taken it doesn't matter as long as we get the money. However, the number of requests has declined noticeably despite our best efforts. Someone out there is killing Yoma and Awakened Beings who should not do so."

"Well," one of the other Men in Black wearing a black hat and darkened glasses in addition to his black clothes joined the conversation, "you may not like to hear it, but there is only one possibility."

Making sure to catch both of the other men's attention he stepped towards the center of the room and, facing Rimuto, continued: "We can preclude the idea of it being the doing of an Awakened Being, because also a former number three was killed easily. Also, an Awakened Being would be easy to spot if it were to go around killing Yoma and other Awakened Ones. So the only thing that is left would be another warrior."

"Don't spout such nonsense, you have nothing to prove that," the elder right to Rimuto berated him but got silenced by a small gesture from Rimuto, who stated: "Let us hear what he has to say."

"Thank you, chief Rimuto. Well, as I said, an Awakened Being can't be the culprit, as well as I doubt that the humans have found a method to get rid of those monsters. Hence, a warrior is the only possible culprit. 'Who?' is the question remaining. The only warrior that not is part of the Organization but that would be able to do something like that, is Rafaela. However, her interests lie elsewhere. To her there would be no benefit in taking away our jobs" he thoroughly explained.

Orsay, who stood next to Rubel, was pretty sure on what he was playing. Besides Rafaela there were neither expelled warriors nor known deserters at that time. The only one left was...

"Jacqueline," Rubel stated convincingly, making the other attendees mutter a bit.

"Blankface..." Rimuto whispered more to himself than to the others, before speaking to everyone again: "You are right in respect thereof that she would definitely be able to pull something like that off without being discovered. Her senses still lack comparison as well as her special skill. However, as you have stated yourself, Awakened Beings should have no interest in getting in the way of our business."

Many murmurs, most of them sounding approving, were to be heard again.

"Look at the facts, Rubel," Orsay began to argue, "she killed of former number 1 and former number 2 and let Luciela escape. Why in the world should she do that if she had not awakened back then? Not to mention that the Doublefingers were two of our strongest warriors in history."

"That I may have an answer for," a man, having his right hand rest on the staff that he always had with him, chimed in, instantly having everyone's attention as he stepped a bit closer to the hall's center, continuing: "It has been bothering me for a while now. Someone with such magnificent control over Yoki awakening so easily, it did not make sense to me. No matter, if I was eating, sleeping, dissecting or creating a new warrior, it did not leave me alone. What exactly is what we call the Yoki limit? Of course, you could state that it is a line that one must not cross or he'll never be able to go back again. We also know, that keeping one's body and mind in check gets harder the more Yoki is released. However, there is a thesis that I came up with and if this thesis is correct, we may be a huge step closer to our original goal – the controllable Awakened Being."

More men had entered the hall in the meantime and were all eager to hear the scary scientist's theory. Even Rimuto seemed interested and patiently waited for Dae to finish.

"As you see, we are taking the Yoki limit as a naturally given thing. Our thinking about it is black and white: stay below it and remain human, cross it and become a monster. However, as stated before, the release of Yoki is gradual as well as the strains it puts on one's body and mind. So why should we think of one's limits as a line separating black and white rather than a gray field that one can step on and leave afterwards? I am saying, that, if my thinking is correct, every warrior has a range, even if it is small, where she is able to use powers that only an Awakened one would possess but is able to keep her human mind. Also, body and mind are no unit. If a warrior is about to awaken, she gives her all to keep her senses together what will lead to her losing control over her body's movements. However, as long as she is still in the gray zone, even if her body disobeys her for a moment, she might be able to return. In other words: Jacqueline did not awaken. She went into the gray zone, lost it and then returned. Knowing her powers, she might simply have scared Luciela away. Luciela might be an Awakened Being, a completely inhuman monster, but her desire to stay alive will prevent her from going against someone stronger than her if not necessary."

Everyone was silent, trying to process what Dae had just stated. And that was, in fact, that every warrior might be able to use an Awakened One's power without awakening.

"I see" a highly interested Rimuto stated. "How likely is it, that your thesis true?"

"That I can not answer yet. I need more data. But to put it in words, I consider it possible."

"Tomorrow morning I want a report, including your theory, how you propound to verify it and what you need for that. You are dismissed," the Organization's chief scarcely replied.

Dae just bowed down slightly, turned around and left. To him it felt great that the chief seemingly approved of his thesis. He did not like him that much, but he needed him to be able to research to his heart's contend. Also he wondered about Jacqueline. If he was right, she actually forced an Abyssal One away, even though she had not awakened. "My, what a very interesting subject" he flimsily whispered while leaving the hall.

###

After a while only two men were still left in the hall since it already was late and most of the men had only come to hear what Dae had to say. Even though he looked like a monster himself and had something creepy about his way to talk and to act, he was a genius without comparison. He was the one who was able to find the ultimate weapon – and therefore allow the Organization's men to finally leave that island they were bound to.

The ones remaining were chief Rimuto and Ermita. The former still sat on his seat, musingly staring nowhere. Ermita was leaned against a wall near one of the entrances. He had closely followed the conversation as well as anyone else. Actually it made him feel at ease to hear that Jacqueline may have not awakened. In a wicked way he was the father of all the warriors, because most of them were brought to the Organization by him or his men.

He was aware that he was taking them away from their parents but he knew that it couldn't be helped. He saw nearly every warrior as a child, as a teen and those who made it as an adult. Even though he was not human anymore, even though he had turned into a monster during his time in the Organization, he still was human once and still had not forgotten about feelings like parental concern. To him all of the warriors were his children.

Yet there was Jacqueline who, if she had not awakened, basically had deserted the Organization. Normally that would lead to her being executed by her comrades. However, after hearing and analyzing what Dae had said thoroughly, he had thought of an idea that might have been able to ensure Jacqueline's survival.

He stepped towards the room's center before asking elder Rimuto: "So, if Dae is right, what are we going to do about Jacqueline?"

Rimuto did not change the direction of his gaze nor the expression in his face. Indeed, what to do about her? Rimuto knew very well that Jacqueline, if she did not want to be found, would not let herself be found.

Therefore, he had to admit: "She is a problem, indeed. Having her senses no warrior will be able to get close to her. Not only that, she seems to be suppressing her Yoki since neither Elda nor Teresa could find her. And even if we were to find her, it would take at least the Top 5 to kill her. She already has shown what she is capable of – and the Doublefingers were amongst the strongest forces we ever had."

"I would not kill her" Ermita stated blankly, earning him a disbelieving stare from Rimuto.

"If Dae is right, she might be the perfect subject for him. She might be the key to the ultimate weapon we have been searching for. As you said, we can't kill her easily anyways. Why not offer her a full pardon and let her return?" Ermita tried to convince the chief.

Rimuto weighed up the pros and cons. Having Jacqueline return indeed was preferable. After all it was not unlikely that she was the strongest of the living warriors at that time. In addition to that Ermita might very well have been right. If there was a way to pass the limits and return, she actually might be the one to know how to do it. Still, there were two things that bothered him...

"You may be right," Rimuto admitted blankly, "but how do you propound to find her? And why do you think she would return?"

"About her reason to return... she is a defensive type. She is afraid of dying. Even though it would be hard for us, we have the forces necessary to kill her, and she knows that" Ermita answered to the second question first.

"I see. Still, there is the other matter" the Organization's chief replied sceptically.

"Well, about that... _she_ has returned from her last job."

"Oh? Has taken her long enough."

Rimuto arose and instructed Ermita: "If that is the case, find Blankface."

He then left the hall to go to sleep himself. Ermita also turned around and left the hall for it to be empty for the next few hours.

###

Deep in one of Toulouse's many forests the figure of a warrior as well as two dark shapes were sitting. They were located around a small fire that calmly was devouring the firewood piece by piece. From time to time Orsay, one of the Men in Black sitting there, threw another stick in to keep the fire burning. Ermita, the other one, was just sitting at the opposite of the fire, waiting for the second warrior that job would take to arrive.

With them there already was a warrior who, having her eyes closed, was leaned against her blade that was impaled into the ground. She had her arms folded and her legs were resting in front of her, slightly bent and slightly spread. Most of her straight hair fell down her back, but due to her having her head bent forwards a little the two strands that she always had run down over her shoulders and collarbones were then just hanging in the air, being slightly rocked by what little wind was blowing. She wore the standard warrior's uniform, only her three-ply pauldrons that marked her as a Top Rank differentiated her from most of the other warriors.

Nothing much had happened between the three of them. Ermita and Orsay never got along very well, Ermita and the warrior did not know each other and since a certain incident had occurred also Orsay had no means of getting through to that woman anymore.

A short glance from Orsay over to her told him that she was not asleep but pretended to be in order to avoid any unnecessary conversation with either of them. 'Ever since that woman disappeared...' Orsay mused as suddenly the woman opened her silver eyes and looked up.

Just moments later a rather tall woman of average build arrived at the small campfire, too. Orsay seemed to be startled by the woman's look a little: The sleeves of both her arms and legs were missing completely, her abdomen and lower back also were completely exposed and her pauldrons as well as the cloth beneath it were missing completely. In a rather worse condition was her face, though: the skin and flesh of the right third of her face, including her right ear, pericranium and eyelid were missing completely. Between the skinned area and the area were there still was skin there was grotesquely looking, shriveled flesh. What remained of her once straight hair messily fell all over her head and face.

Without paying attention to Orsay's disgusted facial expression, she greeted: "Ermita, Orsay." She then directed her gaze towards the warrior unknown to her to introduce herself: "I am Vectra, currently the Organization's number 2. We will be on a mission together."

Hitomi regarded the woman in front of her for a while. The way she looked she probably had a rather unpleasant encounter with someone... -thing. She scarcely introduced herself: "Hitomi, number 5."

As Vectra had impaled her blade and leaned against it, too, Ermita handed a package over to her. Without a word she took it and slightly bowed her head down to say 'thank you'.

"South of here there is a storage room. Get yourself new pauldrons there afterwards," Ermita instructed the woman, who nodded slightly, before he added: "and your wound looks better" what earned him a smile, even though it looked rather creepy coming from Vectra's distorted face.

He then turned his view to the campfire again and arose to start his explanation: "Since everyone is finally here, I will introduce the upcoming mission. Your objective is to find a certain warrior and return her to the Organization. You are to offer her a full pardon that will be granted to her if she accepts to work for us again."

Hitomi's eyes widened. 'A warrior... who has gone absent?'

"The woman I am talking about," he continued, before facing Hitomi for a bit "and I am sure you remember her especially well, Soundcutter," and finally speaking to all of them again: "is no one less than Blankface."

Through gritted teeth Hitomi let out: "Jacqueline."

Ermita turned towards her again and asked: "Huh?"

"It's Jacqueline!" she shouted angrily, shooting a lethal stare into Ermita's direction.

"Hitomi!" Orsay exhorted her, sighing heavily.

"Tsk" was the answer he got as Hitomi sunk deeper into her position and began to stare into the campfire with a cloudy expression.

After a moment of silence Ermita asked Orsay if he had prepared what he had asked for. Nodding, Orsay also handed a package over to Vectra who took it, sent a questioning look over to an already nodding Ermita and opened it.

Inside there was a cloth uniform as every warrior wore them. Concluding, that it had to be Jacqueline's, she lifted the cloth towards her face and began to nose it, what earned her bewildered stares from Orsay and Hitomi.

She memorized every last fragment of the cloth's scent and began to compare it with every scent she has ever scented before. As she thought to have found a match she also licked the uniform at several spots to also compare the taste of it.

As Hitomi saw that her expressions went blank. She rose her right arm and pointed towards Vectra. As everyone had her attention, she scarcely said: "Hentai."

"I know that scent" Vectra suddenly said while putting the uniform back into its package.

"I've smelled it time and again. This one here is really faint, most likely has been four years or more since she has last worn it. But I know around three places where the scent, if I remember correctly, was fresher, maybe a few months old. I have a rough idea where she might be" she stated according to her memories.

"So she is alive...?" Orsay quietly said in surprise. For a moment his thoughts got carried to a certain pigtailed warrior that for sure would flip if she were to hear that.

Hitomi bit by bit got was going on: Vectra seemed to have a very fine sense of smell and taste, as well as a surpassing memory. She seemed to need a sample of her target's smell and then just had to look for a place where that smell was fresh to tail her target.

Suddenly Hitomi's eyes narrowed, as a thought hit her: Jacqueline was their target. Vectra needed a sample of her targets smell, therefore, in that case, Jacqueline was the one Vectra needed a smell sample of. So, if that cloth uniform was the smell sample of their target, then it basically was...

Hitomi arose, went over to Vectra, roughly ripped the package out of her hands, emphatically saying: "Mine!" before she returned to her blade again where she sat down again, tightly pushing the package against her chest.

As she noticed everyone's questioning stares she blushed a little but tried to change the topic: "I got it, Vectra is here to find Jacqueline, but what role do I play?"

Silence. Awkward silence. Still, everyone kept shooting puzzled as well as skeptical looks at her. Squeezing the package with Jacqueline's uniform more tightly she sheepishly said: "I'm not going to give it back!"

"Whatever," Ermita broke the silence, "your job in this is simple: it is known that you and Jacqueline got along well. Since we want her to return we thought that you most likely were the person most suited for talking her into returning."

Hitomi did not comment on that and just stared into the campfire again.

"However," he continued to make things clear: "if she has awakened or is turning our generous offer down, she is to be killed immediately."

At that Hitomi had to snicker. She tried to hold back her laughter and started to giggle as she looked over to Ermita for a moment.

"What is so funny?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

While her giggling slowly turned into laughter she somehow managed to get a few word groups out: "is to be killed", "generous offer", "too hilarious!"

Dark thunderclouds had formed in front of Ermita's face. Energetically but with a lowering voice he asked Hitomi exactly what was so hilarious.

The latter took a while to calm down but after she had finally managed, she arose, looked into Ermita's eyes and thoroughly explained: "Let alone the _generous offer_, are you serious? About killing Jacqueline? The one who can manipulate everything that has Yoki freely? The one that miraculously was the sole survivor of a battle against an Abyssal One? The one who may possibly have chased Luciela of the south away? Honestly, you Organization's people have some strange ways of thinking sometimes, but let me tell you, since you most likely could not figure it out yourself: One. Can. Not. Simply. Kill. Jacqueline."

Ignoring Ermita's grunting she added: "If she has awakened, you will soon have to replace two of your four Top 5 warriors. Just saying."

Completely ignoring the meanwhile boiling Ermita and Orsay that had, through gestures, tried to silence her all the time, Hitomi took her blade and walked by Vectra, stating: "Come on, _Hentai_, we've got a job to do."

"Certainly" the taller warrior replied, took her blade, too, turned around and started walking, just to stop short for a moment, thinking: 'Why did I respond to that?' but then caught up with Hitomi and the both of them left the fireplace.

After having watched them both for a while, Orsay in sheer disbelieve of what just had happened and Ermita in slowly chilling rage, the latter berated Orsay: "You should take better care of your girls. That one has a way too big trap."

"To be honest," Orsay answered, "I did not know _that_ side of her up until now, either."

###

There was hustle and bustle in the port town Escala that was located at the border between the western lands of Lautrec and the southern lands of Mucha. Not only were there ships to load and unload as well as goods to bring to the market, there also were a lot of people packing their things in order to leave.

A while ago suddenly a lot of people had started to die, roughly ten every night. Even though Escala was rather big, even three thousand civilians would sooner or later vanish. Five hundred already were gone, half of them eaten by Yoma, the other half had left the town in panic. So the town's population kept decreasing, by roughly fifteen people each day.

To the travelling merchants and the owners of ships that was a great, even if dangerous, opportunity to sell food, covered wagons and carts as well as horses at horrendous prices. Of course, some of them also fell victim to the Yoma, but still a lot of them became rich men during that crisis.

It was during that time as a sole wanderer arrived at the gates of that town. A drawbridge functioned as a way to cross the water between the mainland and the small island the town was built upon, as well as protection against attacks, but it had proved utterly useless against the invasion of Yoma that Escala had to face at that time.

The wanderer's tall figure crossed the bridge without looking around that much. A place to stay was all he was looking for, but also his hunger had to be fought. Both of them were things that were not that affordable to the wanderer at that moment, but he was positive to find enough work to pay for his expenses.

After having passed two thirds of the drawbridge he looked at the huge gate tower in amazement. It could even compete with the rabonese cathedral in sheer grandeur.

As he wanted to enter the town two guards placed themselves in front of him. Being clad in a brown cloak that covered every part of his body and draped his face in shadows he of course called up suspicion. The object on his back that was shrouded in cloth and more than a meter long did not make him less suspicious.

"Excuse me, mister, but please show us your face and the object you are carrying around" one of the guards politely asked of the wanderer.

"Mister?" a rather deep but still feminine voice asked offendedly. She lifted her hood a little to reveal her silver eyes to the suddenly stunned guards. "That is rude, don't you think?"

"I... I'm sorry! You are finally here!" the guard apologized.

"Huh?" she wondered, "It's not like I came on a request," leaving the guards even more puzzled.

Before she got an answer, she continued: "But since you seem to be in a distress here and most likely have sent a request to the Organization, I would like to talk to the one who sent it."

Taking a moment to overcome perplexity he finally answered, bracing himself and saluting: "Yes ma'am, please follow me!"

While already turning around he instructed his subordinate to get someone to replace him for the time being. The other guard saluted, shouting: "Yessir!"

At a smart pace the guard led the warrior through the streets and alleys towards the bastille of Escala while roughly introducing himself and the situation: "I am Oberst Stark, head of this town's guardsmen. A month ago, overnight, corpses that had their intestines eaten started to show up in frightening numbers. Only a few days after we requested a Claymore to take care of them but we never received a reply. You said that you are not here on a request, so I assume that they are not going to help us."

They had arrived at a plaza in front of Escala's bastille. All around there were recruits training their skills with the sword, bow and arrow and the lance, under the discerningly looks of their instructors.

Some stairs later Oberst Stark, without asking, entered the General's office, who was sightly angered by that rudeness because he was in a meeting: "What are you thinking, Oberst? You can't simply barge in here..."

He was, however, cut off by the Oberst, who, saluting, stated: "I apologize, but this is more important! A Claymore is here!"

With that the General hastily arose, shouting: "Finally!" He then apologized to the ones with him and said that the meeting was cancelled and delayed until the next day.

Murmuring they took their belongings, folders and papers and wanted to leave the room the same moment the Claymore was entering. A cold stare from her sliver eyes made them step back and open a path for her. She then calmly entered the room and placed herself next to the Oberst.

The other men left the room and one of them, an elderly man dressed in a fine red robe, shouted: "You actually did it! You are insane, I tell you, insane! To hire such a monster!"

At that she turned around and gave him a marble-piercing look, scaring him stiff and making him hurry away, slamming the door behind him. The warrior turned towards the General again afterwards.

The latter walked around his desk to approach her and, reaching out his hand, introduced himself: "I am General Stark. Thank you so much for having come here!"

Even though she hesitated at first, she removed her hood, revealing her silver eyes and black hair, and then shook the General's hand, introducing herself: "I am Jacqueline, the Organization's former number 6."

"Former?" the General wondered, but after a short pause added: "Well, let us talk about business while sitting, won't we?"

Jacqueline closed her eyes for a moment and then said: "Normally I am fine standing, but my journey was long, so thank you for the offer."

Jacqueline then leaned the package she was carrying, which contained her blade, against a wall and removed her cloak to put it onto the cloak hanger. Beneath she was clad in comfy navy cloth trousers, black leather boots as well as a simple, sleeveless navy shirt. Around her waist there was a cloth belt as raven as her hair and over her left shoulder and around her back she had bound a black leather belt as a fitting for her blade.

The three of them took their seats; the General behind the desk in his armchair and the Oberst and Jacqueline on the chairs in front of it.

Out of a drawer of his desk the General, a man around the age of fifty, having short, pepper and salt hair as well as an already gray moustache, clad in formal white cloth trousers as well as a white suit coat, he took three whiskey glasses as well as a bottle of lautrician whiskey, something he always had up on his sleeve for situations like that.

So he poured everyone a Whiskey and then said: "Now let's get to the important things, shall we?"

Neither Jacqueline nor Oberst Stark had objections, so General Stark began to explain the situation yet again: "I don't know how much you have heard already from my son, but we are in a really big pinch here. For about a month we have an escalating Yoma problem at hand and, even though the major was against it, I myself requested a Claymore to come here to take care of the Yoma. However, we did not receive a reply but still you are here, telling me, that you are a former Claymore, if I got it right. Don't get me wrong, we are glad that you are here, but what exactly do you mean by _former_?"

"Well," she began, took a sip of her drink and continued: "I am only stating that I am not part of the Organization anymore. And, by the way, it normally takes a week, ten days at most for them to reply. It has nearly been a month for this town now, so they most likely won't send anyone. In addition to that it is a little strange that so many Yoma arrived here at once. Something smells fishy here. You may not have done something to anger the Organization?"

"We never had anything to do with them as of now," the Oberst replied, "and what do you mean by _many_?"

At that Jacqueline closed her eyes to take a close look at her surroundings again. There was no mistake in the number of lights, as always. She just liked to double check things.

She opened her eyes again and calmly said: "23."

That left the two military officers shocked. To think that there were that many of those monsters hiding in their town was nothing they had expected.

Carefully the General asked: "Will you... be able to defeat that many?"

The tall woman emotionlessly replied: "It is not a question of ability. I'm just not that nice of a person to help random people. I demand payment, of course."

"I see," the General replied, "what is it that you want then?"

"Ten thousand Beras per Yoma, 230,000 all in all. As prepayment I'll take a room and a meal" she stated.

That left the General as well as his son flabbergasted. Even a Single Yoma would have been more expensive if they had actually gotten help from the Organization. However, both of them decided to keep quiet and the General agreed, ordering his son to take the Claymore to the best inn in town.

###

The "Crafty Trader" was Escala's flagship-inn. It offered the most comfortable rooms in town as well as food from all over the continent – at a handsome price, that was. However, since Jacqueline, Escala's savior to be, demanded something to eat and a place to stay, that was the least the military could offer her.

After Jacqueline as well as Oberst Stark had ordered something to eat and drink and their drinks had arrived – a "Black Overman" for him and an "Arnean Stout" for her – they continued their conversation.

"It is interesting to be able to casually talk to a Claymore. You hear the stories from everywhere, but I bet that none of them who tell them ever had the chance to actually get to know one of your kind."

"To finally make that clear: _Claymore_ is a term made up by the humans. We do not possess a name. Just call me Jacqueline, would you?"

"I am sorry, I did not know. However, as the rumors say, you once were human. It may be rude to ask, but does it feel much different to be a half-human, half-Yoma being?"

"It has been a while, I don't remember that much of my time as a human. All I can say is that we are pretty much soldiers in a war. We go out, kill and return, or get killed and don't return. There is not much more to it."

She took a sip of her beer after having said that. During the time she was not part of the Organization she had learned that alcohol is a very useful thing when you want to get rid of unwanted thoughts or emotions, but also that it was something that could taste really great if drank the right way.

The Arnean Stout had become one of her favorite beer types. It combined the things that she liked about beer: A slightly dry taste, a refreshing touch that arose from the ten percent alcohol by volume and the big head the beer had if poured into the glass correctly.

After having taken a sip of his own drink, too, Oberst Stark continued the conversation: "I wondered about it, why did you leave the Organization?"

Another swig of beer went down her throat before she stared into her beer mug musingly while slowly tossing her beer in circles. She then took another sip and met the Oberst's gaze: "I guess talking about it won't do any harm, so why not. Two years ago I was on a job together with two comrades. Due to my fault the job failed and my comrades died. I felt myself responsible and was afraid of doing such a mistake again. So I decided to dive into the shadows – and stay there. I did not want to endanger my comrades anymore."

"I see" Oberst Stark musingly replied. "I guess your withdrawal was not official?"

"I deserted" she scarcely replied.

"I see. And now you basically are a freelancer?"

"Well, whenever it is necessary. Most of the time I kill whatever inhuman creature I run into, but now I am basically broke, so I came here. I can demand money of you without having to fear to ruin the town, you see? A lot of merchants are here, the business is brisk – so I thought that charging you a little would not hurt the town's economy that much."

"So that is why your offer is so much more affordable that the Organization's services. What do they need that much money for, anyways? Is a warrior's payment that high?"

"Payment? Can't remember to ever have gotten any."

That left him puzzled: "You are doing it on a voluntary basis then?"

Her left eyebrow rose: "You retarded? Who would voluntarily let himself being turned into a half-human, half-Yoma being to run around and risk his live every day, being hated and feared by everyone?"

"So... you were forced to become what you are?"

"Yes..." she replied after a short pause. With that their conversation basically had ended. There was a lot for the Oberst to think about and a lot that Jacqueline suddenly had to think about but didn't want to.

After they finally had gotten and eaten their meal, Jacqueline told him that she would got to bed for a few hours and then take care of the Yoma, since they would not show themselves before dusk anyways.

Oberst Stark watched her ascend the stairs to the rooms. 'And yet... after what humans have done to her... she's still helping us. What a magnificent person.'

* * *

Author's notes:

I guess no one saw that time skip coming – me neither! It was a sudden idea that turned out to be way better than the one I had before – and again I am satisfied with what I wrote down here and I hope you lot were, too.

Spoiler for next time, let me see... pretty sure that I will continue what I started here and that a _certain pigtailed warrior _will get some screen time again.

Until next time!

By the way: Who got the chapter-titles song reference?

_kstefan88_


	11. Chapter 10: Distraction

Author's notes:

Finally something new. If I would not spent that much time on watching Bleach (again) I'd be able to update more often, but oh well. (I hope it doesn't have such a big impact on my writing, but that's for you to judge.)

I had fun writing this chapter, especially the middle part so I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 10 – Distraction**

_Everything was dark. There was nothing, just a very bright light not bigger than a star in the night's sky. Everything else was pitch black. Not even the slightest trace of anything else but the small and bright light was there, all on it's own._

_Suddenly other lights began to appear in some distance, one after another popped up. Some brighter, some fainter, some smaller, some larger. That went on for a while until there were more than five-thousand lights to be seen. They roughly had formed a cross._

_Five lights caught the former sole light's attention. One of them was small as a star in the night's sky and far brighter than the sun, it seemed as if it was quarreling with another light that was far bigger but couldn't match the luminance of the one it was fighting. Close by there were three other lights that were only slightly more lucid than the moon and also had about it's size. They seemed to be totally fraught._

_Without warning the brightest light suddenly grew to half of the size of the biggest one and due to it's beautiful brightness nearly swallowed up the lights around it. Soon the brightest light returned to its original size._

_The big one was stirred up to the core and gave the impression of being about to explode at any second. And then the bright one disappeared completely. The size of the already big one grew by a lot again and for some reason it calmed down to only being a bit wavy._

_Then two of the other lights vanished completely in an instant and another one shrunk to the size of a mere dot. It suddenly was so small that even though it was quite bright it could barely be seen anymore. Then the really big light started moving away._

###

Her eyes instantly opened to replace the ravening darkness of her dream with the sunlight that had begun shining into her room. She sat up and rubbed her face with her right hand. 'That stupid dream again' she thought slightly annoyed. For nearly two and a half years it had returned several times. To Jacqueline it even felt like the intervals it returned in were shortening.

She had never given it that much thought but couldn't help herself but wonder about having it over and over again. The lights in that dream clearly were Yoki, two of them of extraordinary quality, that much was certain. And one of them seemed to awaken during the dream.

"Good thing it's just a dream" she mused. "A thing like that to exist..."

_...would be dangerous you think?_

"You again..." she sighed enervatedly. "I've just woken up, now give me a break, will you?"

_You always act so cold towards me. You know, you'd be an all-devouring monster if it weren't for me._

"_They_ were still alive if it weren't for you" she shot back a little louder but still without a visible expression.

_I'm not that nice of a person to help anyone without proper consideration. Was it not you who said something similar to the General earlier this day?_

"Oh shut up, will you?" she complained while getting up and beginning to attach her armor.

_How come you began sleeping in beds, anyways? I always thought that you disliked it._

"You tell me, mister know-it-all" she replied after a while while sheathing her claymore to get ready for her job. "After all," she continued while leaving and locking her room, "you have full access to my memories and my feelings. You can even see my dreams more clearly than myself." She then went down the stairs leading down to the reception while continuing: "So why don't you tell me why I began doing that?"

The inn's owner as well as the other guests there gave the tall woman suspicious looks while asking themselves who she was talking to. After Jacqueline had left the innkeeper said: "Those warriors surely are strange."

###

_It's not like I can read your mind or something like that. I just experience everything you experience, so basically whatever you sense, feel and dream. Simple thoughts as well as things you decide and do unconsciously, however, are just too less of an actual experience for me to get to know about them, too._

"And still," Jacqueline sighed while drawing her blade, making everyone around her step back in fear, "you don't understand me in the slightest."

An unmotivated vertical swing of her blade to the right beheaded a man whose corpse, while falling down, turned into that of a Yoma.

"She's here! A Silver-Eyed Witch!" a man shouted. He wanted to turn around and run, but before he even knew what had hit him he already was collapsing in a sea of violet blood.

_21 to go, then?_

"I can count myself" she blankly stated before leaping over the counter of a merchant who was about to sell a fish to a customer just to ruin all the fish he had with his blood.

At that the other Yoma on the street, four more, turned into their demonic forms and began attacking Jacqueline by extending their fingers, only to find their enemy gone basically the moment they had started their attacks.

"Lame" she said as two of them got horizontally split in half by yet another unenthusiastic swing of her blade.

The remaining two were grunting some incomprehensible curses and, before they had even made the decision to strike again, suddenly felt their blood and life precipitately rush out of their bodies.

_Fifteen to go._

"Five of them are at the marketplace" she stated calmly and began sprinting to the heart of the prospering town. "And stop that already."

_Make me._

###

The five Yoma that were on the marketplace had already grouped together. They thought that so they might have a better chance to win against the Claymore that had entered the town.

"Pretty nasty bitch over there" one of them stated.

"Yeah," another one answered, "killed eight already."

A third one just shrugged his shoulders: "Just a warrior, no need to make a fuss."

Like a mirage said warrior appeared amidst them in a crouching stance, having her blade stretched out behind her, saying: "How very nice of you to group up, saves me time."

Just at the moment the Yoma became aware of Jacqueline's presence close to them the latter spun around two times at a speed not comprehensible for the normal Yoma they were. And, just as fast as she had appeared, she was gone.

"You... monster!" one of them shouted before all of them crumbled to three pieces each and a huge fountain of blood spilled all around, leaving the residents of the town similarly shocked as the Yoma had been.

###

_Honestly, sleeping for hours like a baby and as soon as you've started the job you make it an 100-meters race._

"Ts," she sizzled shortly before effortlessly jumping onto the rooftop of a two-story building, from where she directly leaped towards an open window in the local church that was roughly twelve meters above the ground, "I just don't waste time on unnecessary things."

The room she had landed in was a small study filled with books, papers and writing things. The monk in that room reacted very calm. He stopped writing, turned around to Jacqueline and said: "So you are finally here. I do not plan on resisting, just do your job, but please pay attention to not soil any of my work."

A gust of blood sullied the bookshelf left to him as Jacqueline effortlessly cut through his chest.

He managed to stutter "What was...?" before his upper as well as lower body fell to the ground.

Jacqueline stepped towards the door but stopped for a moment to look back at the Yoma, disbelievingly stating: "You can't really have thought that I'd let my guard down because of you surrendering?"

###

After finally the last Yoma had fallen, Jacqueline did not lose any time, got her belongings out of her room and went straight to Escala's bastille in order to claim her reward.

General Stark was obviously surprised by the speed Jacqueline had taken care of the job since the sun had not even set then. Seeing faint hints of skepticism in his face she explained: "There were 23 in total of which eight lie in the street leading to the marketplace, five in the marketplace, two in the church, one in the town hall and seven at the docks. As far as I remember every corpse was seen by the townspeople. That should be evidence enough."

"I see" he stated with closed eyes, opened them again and placed three golden rods of thirty centimeters length and a diameter of two centimeters each at his desk. "There you go."

She blinked a few times, before, slightly puzzled, stating: "That is not the amount we agreed on."

"Please take it all."

Jacqueline considered it for a moment. That surely was a nice amount of money in front of her, it could have fed a normal human for roughly three years – eating only the best of the best. Still she felt bad abut taking that much money.

_What are you waiting for?_

"I'm sorry," she said, "but that is not the way I handle things."

Out of a little pocket that was attached to her belt she took two rods of twelve centimeters length and a diameter of roughly one and a half centimeters, placed them on the table, took one of the three rods lying there and said: "I won't take a single _pellet_ more."

_Imagine me, facepalming._

"No, I insist! You have done your job without a flaw and way faster than we expected, please consider it a bonus-payment."

"I'm done considering" she said and turned around. "Ah, I nearly forgot... If an actual warrior of the Organization comes here to take care of the job, tell them, that the jobs has been taken care of by another warrior already. I'd rather not have you use terms such as _unofficial_ or _deserter_."

Without another word she left. What she was there to do she had done so she headed straight for the town's gates.

_You don't expect someone to come, do you?_

"Nah. I just wonder why they won't send someone."

_Well, you will find out in the future, I guess._

"Do you know something?"

_Who knows..._

"As useful as ever..."

###

Nothing more than an empty dream was accompanying the frail warrior's short periods of sleep. A mere two hours a day, more was not affordable due to a trainee that had graduated just a few weeks before. Within her there was resting an amount of Yoki that the Organization had never seen before. They held high hopes on her, there was but one problem: the little warrior was absolutely unable to restrain herself once even the slightest ounce of her Yoki slipped out. That nearly led to her Awakening a few times and could only be prevented by the Organization's number 10, _Risa the Brainwasher_.

As the Organization's number 10 she was the only one of the warriors who had received special training to fight other warriors. And, to counter a warrior, messing with her Yoki and her senses was the most effective way. Risa, however, was able to develop her abilities to a degree that enabled her, even if only temporarily, to delete or alter the memory of a warrior, hence earning her her nickname. Things like fooling a Yoki user's senses or mending Yoki were like breathing to her.

However, having her rank and her unique skills, her sole purpose was to stay at the Organization the whole time in case other warrior's would attack it. In her whole life – and, considering that she was a warrior, 35 years were a long life – she had had contact with but two other warriors.

One of them was still a trainee, a girl in her teens that had been decided to one day become Risa's successor. Like Risa she underwent anti-warrior training. She even was able to practice her skills on a really dangerous warrior, a ticking time bomb. The second warrior Risa had met in her life.

It was a little girl of a mere six years that had been given her rank despite having trained for only a few weeks. At that moment she was the Organization's number 3 but she had never been on a job before. She needed an anti-warrior to watch over her twenty-four-seven to make sure that she did not use her Yoki by accident. Having her awaken would practically have meant to have an Abyssal One close to the Organization. An Abyssal One with the mind of a child.

At that time it was Risa's only task to watch over that warrior 22 hours a day. During her time sleeping her future successor, Raftela, took care of that job. She was still young and had to develop her skills and endurance, so she could not handle much more.

Three strong knocks tore Risa out of her dreamless slumber. It was time again. She arose, said "on my way," attached her armor, sheathed her sword and left her room to accompany the Man in Black waiting for her.

###

While walking through the halls of the Organization's headquarters Risa inquired how Raftela was doing.

Her guide answered promptly: "She is all sweaty and her breath has become heavy, so we decided to wake you a little earlier than usual."

"I see," she answered. "Lets hurry, then."

"As you see fit."

###

They left the Organization's headquarters and, after a few minutes of walking, entered the ruins of a small village. Everything was the same as always: Raftela's Yoki was stirred up a little, but the Yoki of the one she watched over was nearly non-existent.

"She's doing well as always" Risa said with signs of a smile on her face but her guide did not comment on that.

The two of them stopped in front of a building that was more intact than the other houses. Next to the door was leaned a man wearing black cloth trousers as well as a black cloth waistcoat. A black headscarf hid his left eye that he had lost a long time ago.

"Cheers Marco" Risa greeted him. "I'll take over now."

"Good" he said and the both of them went inside.

Inside there was standing Raftela, having her eyes directed at the small, sleeping girl that was lying at the opposite of the room, curled up like a cat. She looked at her relief for a second before stating:

"Good morning, Risa. You are early today. Please sit down for now, I can still keep going since Lillaine fell asleep."

Without saying anything at first, Risa examined Raftela's condition: She was breathing heavily, her whole uniform as well as her face and hair were wet from sweat, her eyelids were twitching and her nose was bleeding.

"Like hell you can" Risa lectured her. "Get out and go to sleep or I'll kick you out."

"But..." the girl began to complain, as an adamant rap on her head drove teardrops into the corner's of her eyes.

"You are twenty years to early to complain, brat" she berated Raftela with a monotone voice.

Raftela complained about the pain and rubbed the aching spot on her head with her right hand while cleaning the blood off her face with her left sleeve. Before she was finished another rap hit her head and Risa, visibly angry, shouted: "And don't do that with your sleeve, goddammit! What did I give that blowrag to you for?"

Meanwhile holding her aching head with both hands Raftela angrily shot back: "Meanie! Old hag! Pervert! Meanie!"

"Old... hag?" Risa said while trying to stay calm. It did not work, however: Her fists were clenched, her body was shaking and a few veins had began to show on the sides of her forehead.

"Er... I'll go to sleep!" Raftela quickly said and began to dash towards the Organization's headquarters.

"Where do you learn such words, meathead?" Risa yelled after her while gesturing wildly.

Marco leaned over to the other Man in Black and whispered on the quiet: "I'm pretty sure I know from who she learns those words." His colleague nodded in accordance."

Lillaine, who had woken up from the commotion Risa had caused, sat up and rubbed her eyes while yawning.

"Nap time over already?" she asked sleepily.

Then, the moment she spotted Risa, she suddenly was fully awake, leaped to her feet, dashed over to her and jumped towards her, cheerfully shouting: "Risaaaaaa!"

The latter caught her and, while embracing her, also greeted her: "Mornin' Lilly. Had a nice nap?"

Marco and his colleague left the moment Lillaine had become aware of Risa. They knew that the both of them hated nothing more than being watched over all the time. In addition to that, as long, as Lillaine was with Risa, there was nothing to worry about.

###

"Are you sure that you know were you are going?" Hitomi asked her comrade who was determinedly walking through a forest of seemingly infinite proportions while nosing the air every now and then.

"The scent got fresher. We're catching up. Roughly five days old."

Hitomi sighed. Walking through the forest, led by someone she barely knew who decided their path based on smell felt to her like being led by a stray dog. In her arms she still tightly hold the package with Jacqueline's old uniform. Of course only because she wanted to give it back to her.

"Author, are you implying something here?"

Never ever.

"Ts" Hitomi sizzled. "Why am I trying to talk with you anyways?"

Vectra stopped short for a moment, took several looks around and then asked Hitomi: "Do you happen to have an invisible friend?"

"Just what are you talking about?" the latter asked with a raised eyebrow.

The both of them continued their job directly afterwards and, after roughly another hour of seeing nothing but trees, reached an open field with a fairly high hill roughly ten miles ahead of them.

"Finally!" Hitomi called out to no one in particular and stretched herself. "That forest was on my nerves."

"Be quiet for a moment" Vectra demanded, earning a puzzled look from her comrade.

She had closed her eyes because a familiar sensation had stroked her mind. All her focus lay on her surroundings at that moment. Two bright but small lights were directly where she was standing. They were nothing for her to be concerned about. The one that got her attention was ahead. It was an Awakened Being, a rather strong one at that. It was engaged by four other lights, warriors, as she could tell. And it looked bad.

Her eyes opened instantly before she considered their possibilities. If they just left things as they were, the Awakened Being was likely to kill all of its opponents. However, running ten miles would have taken them roughly ten minutes, five when using a lot of Yoki.

"What's the matter?" her fellow warrior asked, as she suddenly was told to run. So she did, easily keeping up with Vectra's pace.

"Ahead there is an Awakened Being, engaging four other warriors. It doesn't look good for them. We have to hurry and assist them as fast as possible. I hope we can make it?"

"Directly ahead?" Hitomi asked.

"Yeah, approximately ten miles" she was answered.

"I do not consider a minute long" she stated, seeming puzzled a little, and, leaving an afterimage every twenty meters, began to rush away at the speed of sound.

Vectra slowed down until she stopped her movement completely and stared ahead, having her jaw dropped, not believing her own senses.

"That is definitely not supposed to be possible" she said to herself, being more than just bewildered.

A few moments later she snapped out of it, shook her head a few times and began to run again in order to help her comrades.

###

Directly after hitting the bottom Liara's body rebounded just to break through a trunk with a diameter of half a meter, making the tree it supported collapse towards the Awakened Being they were fighting. The monster effortlessly "slid" to the side a little and avoided the falling tree completely.

"Captain!" one of Liara's comrades, a tall girl with pointy ears and straight, nearly white hair, shouted at her, but got no reaction.

The scorpion-like Being tried to sting the girl with pointy ears but got its tail impaled by another warrior who suddenly shot out of the sky, much to the Awakened's surprise.

"Space off another time, Irene!" the one who had just saved her shouted. At that Irene saw how much her comrade Anna had to struggle to keep the monsters tail from moving and impaled it, too, to assist her.

"Now! Teresa!" Anna yelled out to the fourth member of their hunting party who had been on the defense for nearly the whole battle due to a lack of openings.

The moment there was one she parried one attack of the beings claws and leaped over to her comrades to cut the monsters tail, a "really bugging thing" as Teresa had called it herself, clean off. Their enemy struggled with all his might but in the end got his tail severed.

By a small movement of his nearly invisible, insect-like wings, his four feet rose only a few centimeters over the ground, moved his whole body back and made him land, letting it appear as if he was sliding over the ground.

Anna carefully was taking a close look on the new situation. Their opponent was a male Awakened Being, something far stronger that a normal Awakened One. He was frail overall, like an insect, but his dark red skin was a shell that only Teresa was able to cut. His legs were long and each had feet with five claws with the length and edge of a dagger each. On his back there were two transparent insect wings as well as several limbs that basically were nothing more than arms with one jolt each that had, instead of a hand, a sting. They could be cut by others than Teresa but the monster was able to rapidly regrow them.

It probably most fearsome weapon, its tail that was about twice as long as itself – roughly eight meters – ended in a sting itself and could be used to swipe or to sting opponents ad a high speed.

One of those tail sweeps had sent Liara flying and led to a rather unpleasant encounter with a tree. Slightly coughing she picked herself up, snarlingly complaining about the pain in her back. She took her blade and walked over to her comrades who were thinking on what to do next, complaining: "Yo Anna, why do your tactics nearly always involve me flying through the air and / or crashing into hard things?"

"Easy," she explained as Liara had placed herself next to her, "you never follow them and screw up."

"Is that so?" she mused. "So what now?"

"Oh you can still stand?" the Being mocked Liara, getting her attention instantly. "You looked so frail, and your brainless way of completely abandoning your defense for the sake of being able to attack made you seem like a newbie, but at least you seem to have stamina, I'll give you that."

"Huh? No defense, you say? If that were the case your stupid tail would have pierced through my chest, dumbass!" she unmotivatedly commented.

"Liara, distract it on the ground, I will do so from above, Teresa go for the head at the first opening, Irene, you cover her" Anna explained the only tactic that made sense to her rashly.

"Good luck then" the Awakened Being said with played honesty and then nonchalantly got airborne by flapping his wings at a frequency high enough to not even be audible for dogs. Leaving his opponents surprised he prepared his next attack by pointing the limbs on his back towards Irene. The moment Anna became aware of what was about to happen she called out for Irene, but was too late, as one sting after another were shot at Irene at an astounding speed. The latter could not react anymore but, suffering only one hit in her left shoulder, got pushed away by a quick-thinking Teresa. Her thinking was too quick, though, because she got her body penetrated by roughly twenty of the stings, collapsed to the ground and suddenly had to struggle with her consciousness.

Irene instantly kneeled down to her and began to pull the stings out of her body so that she could regenerate properly. None of the hits was fatal and Irene was thankful for that, because she would have felt even guiltier for having her comrade and former classmate killed due to her trying to save her.

"How cute, jumping between her comrade and danger to protect her" the meanwhile hovering Being mocked the warriors send to kill him.

"That scumbag makes me sick" Liara snarled to herself. Unfortunately, with their opponent flying, only Anna could reach him easily. Still, with Teresa down they then had no one capable of cutting him. Or so she thought, as she noticed something.

"Anna, leg-up!" she suddenly shouted, leaping towards Anna from behind. The latter had barely time to react but still managed to give Liara enough momentum to get her up far enough to reach their enemy. The Being was about to knock Liara away, as Liara suddenly cut off the Being right hand.

"I knew it!" she said with a satisfied grin.

Her joy was not supposed to last long since the monster suddenly turned around very fast, using the remainders of its tail to smash Liara straight to the ground. That time, however, she was not able to properly defend herself and therefore took a considerable amount of damage. The pain that came from all her broken bones and damaged intestines were enough to make her pass out.

Anna growled "Shit!" as she got the unconscious Liara away just in time to avoid another salve of the Awakened Beings stings.

"Too bad," it said chuckling, "just as she found out how to cut me."

"I wonder," a voice from behind it suddenly said, "if she though, that, since an exoskeleton has to have lesser armored parts to stay agile, it would be wise to attack there."

"Who...?" he began its question but was interrupt by a bunch of slashes completely invisible to him that not only destroyed most of the limbs on his back but his two wings as well, making him fall to the ground.

The warrior that had just cut everything on his back landed next to Anna in a cat-like fashion.

"Who are you?" she said puzzled.

"No worries," the woman with straight hair answered, "I'll take over now. Tend to your comrades."

While the abradant sound of a blade being drawn was heard, Anna's eyes widened as she instantly recognized the symbol of the warrior that had just arrived: three vertical bars and three horizontal bars, all of them of the same length.

'Why is someone like her here?' she wondered.

"Bitch, who are you?" the Awakened One, that now had problems standing, demanded.

"Just a warrior on a mission passing by. That's it for chatter, be prepared," were her words. However, her opponent did not stand a chance at the amazing speed of his opponents movement. One by one he lost his legs and the remainders of his tail without a real chance to counterattack.

As the woman was about to chop his head of he said: "I am Tuturis, the Organization's third number 3. Please, at least tell me your name."

She sighed: "Hitomi, number 5."

"I see. Sou you warriors have indeed become stronger" were the last words he could say before Hitomi's attack beheaded him.

She sheathed her blade again and took a look at her comrades: Two of them were severely wounded with one of them being unconscious. However, neither of them had lethal wounds, so everything was fine.

Anna stepped towards her and, offering her hand, said: "I am Anna, the current number 7. Thank you a lot, you saved us."

Hitomi took Anna's offer and stated, that she was heading in their direction anyways and that she just made a little stop.

"Ah, well," she added, "since I am here, why not introduce the others, too?"

Anna then introduced the other warriors to Hitomi: "The two over there are number 19, Teresa and number 21, Irene. They are very talented girls but lack experience, so they are often sent on difficult hunts with more experienced warriors. And," she continued, pointing at the passed out Liara, "this is number 6, Liara. We often are on hunts together because we are a good team."

At that very moment Vectra arrived at the scene, breathing like she had ran a marathon in less than an hour.

"And this is _Hentai_, the current number 2," Hitomi stated with an honest expression.

"It's Vectra, Vectra!" she shouted, ending up coughing.

* * *

Author's notes:

And again, we are done and again, I threw new things into the story (honestly, I have to finish all the threads sooner or later... a lot is still to do.)

I hope you enjoyed it!

Next time we will have a little more of Risa and Lillaine, Liara might flip a little and... nope, enough spoiler already.

_kstefan88_


	12. Chapter 11: Bad news

Author's notes:

Wow, that was a fast one. Nothing much to say, but...

Since it has been a while: No, don't own Claymore, don't own it's Characters.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 11 – Bad news**

"Hop, hop, hop, hop" Lillaine constantly kept on saying whenever she jumped from one tile of the floor to another while carefully paying attention to not step on any of the gaps between them. In the ruins she had to live in there weren't many fun things to do for a girl of her age, but she still managed to find an activity to make time pass faster.

One of those activities was randomly leaping around on the plaza amidst the ruins that once might have been a marketplace. However, there was more to her game than it seemed to a possible spectator: actually Lillaine enjoyed that game and the rules it went by (yes, there were rules) to even have made a scoring system for it. She played it several hours a day and constantly got better.

The rules were as simple as to not being allowed to step onto the gaps between the tiles as well as to not being allowed to rest on a single tile for more than a second. The scoring was easy as well: every gap that was crossed while in mid-air was worth one point. Her personal record was thirty-two-thousand five-hundred and seventy-three. It had taken her nearly an hour to accomplish that record.

What looked like mere child's play was also, even though she did not do it consciously, a good way for Lillaine to learn how to judge distances correctly, trained her mental math as well as her muscles and her equilibrioception. And, even though she lacked opponents, she never tired of chasing after her own record.

What she never tired of doing her guardian never tired of watching. Risa always enjoyed watching her fosterling play around like that because that way she was able to have a childhood most of the other warriors hadn't had. Also during that time Risa could relax because, for whatever reason, Lillaine could keep her Yoki under control like it was nothing when she was enjoying herself. But when sitting around, being bored or annoyed, she could easily drift away – and for situations like that Risa had always been close to her during the prior three months.

Here gaze then wandered to the closest entrance of the Organization's headquarters as she felt Raftela's Yoki to see her and Marco, as well as another Man in Black wearing black clothes, a black hat and darkened glasses who she hadn't seen before come out of it.

"They're way too early" she muttered to herself.

Lillaine, who had also noticed the familiar Yoki, while in mid-air, pointed towards Raftela and joyfully shouted: "It's Raffy!"

She then barely missed a gap and instantly leaped again to continue her play. 'Nearly screwed up that great run' she mused shortly before paying all her attention to her game again.

###

_Half an hour earlier a certain Man in Black had a conversation in confidence with the Organization's chief Rimuto..._

"_So what is it that you want, Rubel?" a bored appearing Rimuto asked of his subordinate._

"_It surely is inconvenient to have our only protection take care of that little girl all day, isn't it?" he stated with played regret in his voice, gaining no reply from Rimuto._

"_You see, chief Rimuto," he began to explain, "if we were to be attacked now, who would protect us? Leaving that girl alone is out of question, no matter what the reason."_

_After considering what to say for a few moments Rimuto answered calmly: "I can see your point, but it can't be helped, so discussing it is unnecessary."_

"_I hate to disagree with you, but I think that we will soon have the chance to get number 3 onto jobs without having to fear her Awakening – neither here nor anywhere else."_

_That slightly got Rimuto's interest. Having Risa watch over a loose cannon all the time was indeed bothersome, not to speak of the constant risk of failure – and therefore Lillaine's Awakening. However, knowing Rubel, he might actually have had a good idea, so Rimuto decided to listen._

"_You see, chief," he began his explanation, "according to Dae's thesis Jacqueline might still have her human mind. If anyone has the ability to take care of number 3 besides Risa, who else could it be?"_

_Rubel was right with what he had said, Rimuto had to admit that. Still there were two big ifs: "You certainly are right, but there are two concerns: Firstly, what, if she has awakened and secondly, what if she refuses to work with us again?"_

"_About the first concern you mentioned, I think that it is safe to say that Dae doesn't spout nonsense and his thesis actually might be true. Also, even if he is wrong, who are we to say that she did not survive by pure chance?" he convincingly described his views before continuing: "As for your second concern, I have to apologize, but I acted on my own accord here."_

"_Huh?" Rimuto wondered. "What did you do?"_

"_I sent number 5 together with number 2 in order to secure her approval of your generous offer of a full pardon" he explained._

"_You should know that I don't like people deciding such things on their own accord, Rubel. Explain your actions!" Rimuto demanded, still in a calm manner._

"_Of course. Warriors still have human hearts, filled with all sorts of feelings. Feelings such as friendship or even love are possible for them as they are for every other human. However, as you may or may not know, it appears for Jacqueline and number 5 to have a bond of that kind. In other words, no matter, how much Jacqueline may be against working under the Organization again, if it is number 5 asking, she will approve. In addition to that, since we don't get many requests due to Jacqueline's doing, Hysteria and the Single Digits will be enough to handle the requests left. Furthermore, even if Jacqueline were to turn down our offer, she won't go against number 5 but number 5 will against her if she goes against number 2. So she basically has not that much of a choice."_

_The Organization's elder then rested his chin on his folded hands to think about Rubel's words and then explained: "I see, so you acted in the Organization's interest. For future decisions of that kind I'd like to be informed beforehand."_

"_I understand, chief."_

"_Good. So, if she returns you propound to put number 3 under Blankface's care?"_

"_Exactly."_

"_Well then, please get Raftela to watch over number 3 for a while. I'd like to speak to Risa in private."_

"_As you wish."_

_###_

As Rubel, accompanied by Marco and Raftela, was walking towards the ruins where Risa and Lillaine were nearly all day, he mused a little about Rimuto's reasons to talk to Risa: 'That surely is rare for _him_ to privately talk to a warrior. Ah, well, they have known each other for nearly thirty years now. I guess that even _those_ monsters still have some sort of emotions left in their rotten hearts.'

As the three of them had reached the ruins Risa already was awaiting them while Lillaine still kept on playing her game.

"How come you are so early today?" Raftela asked with no visible expression. Even though she was a rather foulmouthed warrior she was able to tell if something was off – and that always had gotten her into a more earnest way of talking.

Marco then explained the situation: "It is no big deal, just that Rimuto wants to have a word with you, so for now Raftela will take over. Rubel," he slightly flourished that he was talking about the other Man in Black, "will guide you to Rimuto's location."

"I see" Risa said. Turning around to the still playing girl she called out to her: "I'll be back soon! Don't give that brat too much trouble!"

Waving in mid-air Lillaine shouted back "All righty!" before barely missing a gap again.

At that Rubel and Risa left the ruins to head back to the headquarters.

"So, Rubel, was it?"

"Yes, you are Risa then, if I am not mistaken?"

"Yes. So, what does the old man want?"

"My, do you really think it is okay to speak like that of the chief?"

"That's none of your business. Answer my question!"

"A lively one are we? As for the chief's motives, I could only speculate, but I think it is better for you to ask him yourself, don't you agree?"

The both of them entered the headquarters as Risa said: "You don't have to guide me, you know? I know were the main hall is."

"Really?" he answered with slight sarcasm. "And who said that he is there?"

"Huh?" the anti-warrior said a little surprised. "Why wouldn't he be there?"

"Because he is waiting in his private rooms" Rubel stated, making Risa's eyes widen. It had been a while since she was asked to come there.

"You don't happen to know the way there, too?" her guide said with a catty grin.

That, however, led to Risa blushing, grabbing his black cloth sweater with both hands and pulling his face close to hers, before she angrily shouted: "What kind of woman you think I am, bastard?"

Rubel, keeping his cool and seeing the signs on Risa's face, simply asked: "So, do you?"

Risa's face became even redder as she pushed him away and sheepishly stated: "I do."

"I see" Rubel said, slightly chuckling. "I guess you'll find it alone then" he said and left, waving a few times while walking away.

"Insensitive klutz" she muttered with tightly folded arms and a still red face.

###

A few minutes later, after she had calmed down again, she stood in front of the door to Rimuto's private rooms. After taking a few deep breaths she knocked a few times.

"Come in" a deep voice from inside demanded.

So Risa opened the door and entered. In front of her a bright and spacious room unfolded. Being approximately six meters wide and almost eight meters long it was more of a hall than a single room, but it was the chief's private chamber after all.

Left and right of the entrance there were arranged couches that were covered in fir green velvet. Between them there stood a table of four meters width and three meters length that was covered in maps, rulers, compasses, and small tin figures of warriors and monsters, probably Awakened Beings. All of it looked very untidy, so at that moment it most likely didn't serve any purpose. In the farther end of the room there were black book shelves to the right and a door to the left that led to the bedroom. Between the door and the book shelves there stood an old fashioned study that was, compared to the table with all the maps, really clean. The wall opposite of the entrance was nothing but a window that enabled the rooms owner an ocean view.

In front of the window there stood Rimuto, just looking at the Ocean's blue color. From behind Risa walked towards him to stop just a meter behind him. Without letting her say something, he demanded of her to stand next to him, and she obeyed.

After the both of them had done nothing but to stare at the Ocean for a few minutes, Rimuto suddenly asked: "What do you feel when looking at it?"

Caught a little off guard by that question Risa blinked a few times to process it, to give her answer shortly afterwards: "I see a vast, lifeless world, just like a desert. To look at it like this fills me with anxiety. All I know is the land I was born and have lived in, Sutafu. Looking at something so big makes me feel small and unimportant."

Her look had gotten a little melancholic, as she continued: "And still, it somehow gives me a feeling I can't name. It feels like I just want to go away, to a place far away from here. No matter how it is there, if it is for better or for worse, I just want to go there, even if I have not the slightest clue where _there_ is."

Rimuto then directed his gaze towards the slightly taller woman left to him and said: "It is called wanderlust. Everyone gets that feeling every now and then. I guess it is part of being human. Do you have it often?"

She then directed her gaze to the right to meet his and stated: "Only when I am in the rare position to look at the Ocean together with you."

A faint but visible smile appeared on Rimuto's face. A smile that, up until then, only Risa had ever seen.

He than took his seat in the armchair he always sat in when doing paperwork or planning strategies, as well when he received orders or giving reports from or to the mainland's Organization. Without meeting Risa's eyes again he slightly patted on his lap two times. Risa then doffed her pauldrons and her waist armor, placed them on the ground and sat on Rimuto's lap.

The latter then gently caressed the woman's blonde, curly hair and asked: "How is Raftela doing?"

Both her arms slid around the Organization's chief's neck to pull him closer, as she stated: "She's getting better every day. She is really talented."

"Will she become as great as you?"

"Rather not, but she'll be able to do the job."

"I see."

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Do I need a reason to want to see you?"

"He," Risa chuckled, "most certainly not."

She then closed her eyes and rested her right orbit onto Rimuto's head. "But there is something you want, isn't there?" she said knowingly and, after a short pause, added: "And I won't like it."

"You know me far too well" he sighed in regret. "So yes, you are right. It is about Lillaine. You have come to like her a lot, isn't that right?"

At that Risa raised her head from its position and let her left hand slide down onto her own lap again. "What about her?" she asked with an honest tone.

"You see," Rimuto began his explanation shortly after having found to his earnest, bored look again, "your job is to protect the headquarters against rebelling warriors and Awakened Beings. You are our last line of defense. However, you are busy with taking care of Lillaine nearly all the time. If an attack were to come it would take far too long to get Raftela to cover for you, way too much time would pass. Worst case would be having Lillaine unguarded and awakening. So, even if this is not absolute yet, we thought of putting her under the care of another warrior."

"Impossible!" Risa spouted out. "You know how her condition is! She needs someone like me and Raftela is not ready to care for her the whole day! Who else would..."

She got silenced by the tip of Rimuto's index that he gingerly had put onto her lips.

"I understand your concerns," he said, "but there is a warrior that might be able of ensuring her staying human."

He then moved his fingertip away from Risa's lips.

"Might?" she asked disbelievingly.

"That is why I said that it is not absolute yet," he explained.

Risa's view turned sad all of a sudden and she turned her face away from Rimuto. "How much time do I have left with her?" she asked with a slightly sobbing voice.

"Two, maybe three months, I think."

"I see" she answered.

Rimuto then gently grabbed her chin and turned her face towards him, before he tried to convince her: "The woman we are going to entrust with taking care of Lillaine is strong enough to take out two to three Awakened Beings on her own and she has, in addition to that, the ability to mend Yoki. Lillaine will be in good hands."

Risa blinked once, leading to a tear rolling down her cheek. "Can she... prove that?"

Rimuto closed his eyes for a moment, before he opened them again to ask: "What proof would you need?"

A deep breath later Risa explained her wishes: "If that woman really is going to take care of Lillaine then I have three conditions. The first one is that she has to watch over her for a whole month, the same way I'd do it, without losing control of her once. The second condition is that she can defeat one of the top ranks while watching over Lillaine. And the third condition is for Lillaine to accept her as her guardian. If all those conditions are met, I will not complain."

Rimuto looked into her gaze for many minutes while thinking about what Risa had said just then. He knew exactly that she would not be pleased with anything else and that she had named the minimum requirements for someone else to take care of Lillaine. On top of that, he could hardly knock back anything she said.

"I see," he said with closed eyes before opening them again, "if that is what you want we will go with that then. The safety of the one you care about that much has to be ensured after all."

Though another tear rolled down her cheek a wide smile formed on Risa's face as she hugged Rimuto to thank him.

She then arose, took his hand and pulled him out of his armchair to lead him to his bedroom.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked.

"What about it, old man? Afraid you can't anymore?" she tried to mock him.

Though she was still concerned about Lillaine and the woman who would become her new guardian she trusted Rimuto more than anyone else. To her his thoughts and opinions were the one and only truth. It had been like that since the first time she had come to the Organization, a day, that she would never be able to forget.

"He," he chuckled, "don't you dare to complain afterwards!"

"With you," she playfully said, "I have never regretted anything."

So the both of them entered the bedroom. It should take a while.

###

_Even though she did not remember much of her human life, there still were some fragments left in her head that made themselves felt from time to time. One of them was the day that would change her life forever, something she was not aware of back then._

_The village she lived in was only a few miles east of the lands of Toulouse. It was like many others, just a bunch of buildings inhabited by a bunch of peasants. And, like many other villages, it had problems with Yoma._

_A few of them had appeared there and had begun to prey on the village's inhabitants. One after another vanished. Risa's parents were amongst the first people to get eaten, so she got cast out just to be safe._

_She was forced to aimlessly walk around in the deserted lands of Sutafu in the hope of finding a place to stay but it was in vain. The farther east she got, the lesser signs of life were to be seen._

_Luck had it, that, as she was at the verge of death, a woman picked her up. Risa herself did not remember anything about her, just that she wore bright clothes and a big sword._

_Said woman brought her to a place she later only would call the Organization's headquarters. The first person she met there was a man named Rimuto. She had been put in charge of him and basically he was the one who ensured her survival._

_After having been cast out by the only people she knew and after having been in a dead-alive state for several days his face was the first face she was able to trust because he was the one to give her food, water and a roof over her head._

_She later got to know that the person who had brought her to the Organization had been a warrior called Licht. However, as Risa got to know that, Licht was already dead, so she never got the chance to thank her._

_Under the constant observation of Rimuto, at that time a handler in the Organization, she became a Claymore, a man-made weapon meant to defeat Yoma, Awakened Beings and Descendants of the Dragons. Through all the pain connected with that huge change Rimuto had always been with Risa to ease her pain. At his insistence Risa became the successor of the number 10 of that time._

_He knew what fate was awaiting most of the warriors to fight at the front lines and since Risa was his favorite he convinced the leader at that time to make her into the new anti-warrior._

_That choice was, even if he did it out of affection for Risa, one of the best in his life: Risa had a talent in reading and mending Yoki as well as controlling others senses that was, up to that date, unheard of._

_After the former chief had passed away Rimuto became the Organization's new head. And Risa became his loyal, personal bodyguard._

###

Under the constant treatment by Anna Liara finally got back to her senses. She tried to get up instantly but was pushed back by Anna who was telling her not to rush it and that everything was okay.

Liara's gaze wandered around a bit until she became aware of Hitomi and Vectra.

Addressing them she asked: "The two of you... have saved us?"

The first reaction she got was from Vectra who, meeting her gaze, declared: "Basically Hitomi did save you, I merely noticed that you were in trouble."

"I see" Liara said smiling. "Thanks anyways. We really were in a" 'pinch here' she wanted to say, but started coughing.

"Don't overdo it" a caringly smiling Anna reminded her of her condition.

After having calmed her coughing Liara whispered smilingly: "Sorry, sis."

After having watched for a while Hitomi asked, being interested: "Exactly what are you doing there, Anna?"

The latter, without detention, explained to her senior: "By keeping my own Yoki at the same wavelength of hers I am able to support whatever she is doing. In this case, it is healing her injuries."

"Oh," Hitomi responded in an astounded manner, "I did not know that something like that was possible. Guess I'll need to refine my skills in sensing and controlling Yoki. A lot."

Teresa, who was already completely healed, stepped towards them, closely followed by Irene.

Having her trademark smile on her face she friendly said: "You saved the day already, that is enough, isn't it? Thank you very much!"

"Same here" Irene added.

"Nah, it's nothing" Hitomi stated honestly. "As I said, we were heading here anyways. As Vectra noticed that you were in a pinch I just hurried a little. No big deal."

###

Later that day, as everyone was healthy again and the sun had set already, the six of them had decided to light a campfire and spend the night together. Hitomi had gotten them a boar to eat (even though everyone of them only took a few bites) and the nearby creek served as a place to bathe as well as a source of drinking water.

After everyone was sated, not thirsty and clean, they sat around the campfire to talk about all the world and his wife.

One of the questions that should crack the peace of that evening was posed Anna: "Hitomi, Vectra, why are you here anyways? It is rare for two top ranks to be on a mission together."

Vectra took the initiative to answer: "A little more than two years ago a warrior went missing on a hunt. It was a common assumption that she had awakened, but there never was a proof. Dae, the Organization's scientist, however, had a thesis that makes it likely for her to still be human and alive. We are searching for her right now, to return her to the Organization, if she agrees, or to kill her, if she does not agree."

At that Hitomi chimed in: "After I have given her a good beating."

Her statement left everyone puzzled, before Liara, who had suddenly become tense, piped up: "What is her name?"

"Jacqueline, why?" Vectra asked.

Liara literally shot up and, with clenched fists and a mad look in her face, yelled at Vectra: "_She_ is alive?"

Everyone could feel a rise in Liara's Yoki. The first one to react was Anna who arose, took Liara's hands and said: "Calm yourself! I know about your reasons to be upset, but for now, please stay calm!"

It only took Anna's words to get Liara to restrain herself. Still, she declared: "You know... that I will never forgive... that I will never forget..."

"I know" Anna answered. "I know."

###

_After having finished another boring mission, Liara sat, as always, close to a small campfire, waiting for Orsay to assign a new mission to her._

_After a certain incident concerning Liara's political incorrect ways of getting higher ranks their relationship had become more open in no time. To Liara Orsay had become something comparable to an older brother._

_Whenever she had finished a mission, she always looked forward to meeting him. Sometimes it felt to her like meeting him was the only thing she completed her missions for. In fact, Orsay scolding her had had such a big impact on her, that her rate of growth had nearly doubled. In no time she suddenly had become able to enter the ranks of the Single Digits._

_That evening, however, should be one of the worst in her life. She, unaware of the news to come, excitedly sat at the fireplace, waiting for Orsay._

_Eventually he showed up. His face clearly suggested an honest mood, something Liara had nearly forgotten about him. Without greeting him properly, she asked: "What is the matter, Orsay? You look so honest."_

"_Arise" he said after having taken a seat himself._

_Without questioning him Liara arose._

"_No, better sit down" he said._

_So Liara sat down._

"_Well, maybe it is better if you stand, after all."_

_So, slightly annoyed, Liara stood up again._

"_Actually..."_

"_Cut it out already!" she yelled at him. "What is it?"_

_He sighed. "You see, I was just thinking in what way it would be best to deliver that message to you. But I guess you'll hate it either way."_

_Liara sat down then. "Bad messages are best heard while being calm, isn't that right?"_

"_Yeah, most likely."_

"_So," she sighed, "what is it, then?"_

_Orsay rose his head to met Liara's gaze. And then, as calmly as possible, he said: "Neerie and Vanessa are dead. This has been confirmed by the Retrieval Squad a few days ago."_

_Liara's jaw dropped, her eyes widened and she turned into a totally absentminded state. She tried to process what Orsay had just said. Her best friends, dead? Just like that?_

_Her breath began to become heavy and her pulse rose. Orsay was joking, that had to be it! There was no way for them to die!_

"_The one with them," Orsay continued, catching the pig-tailed woman's attention, "Jacqueline, that is... there is no trace left of her. If you want to know more, and I can see that you want that, you will have to ask her in person."_

"_So they're dead?" she whimpered as tears began to flood her face._

"_Yeah, sadly" he answered._

_Afterward agonized screams filled the surrounding forest._

###

"Voice in my head, I feel unimportant" Jacqueline said.

_Why is that?_

"I got ignored the whole chapter. That sucks."

_Poor thing!_

"Fuck your sarcasm!"

My, my, get along.

"I am the main character here!"

So?

"I am supposed to have screen time every chapter!"

Ever read Claymore? Your argument is invalid.

"I hate you."

Whatever.

* * *

Author's notes:

Poor little Jacci. Guess she'll get a little more attention next time. But not too much, I don't want it to get to her head.

Until next time!

_kstefan88_


	13. Chapter 12: Spy Survivor Anger

Author's notes:

Sorry for the wait, but... BANG, update!

You wouldn't believe how easy it is to keep yourself from writing. Here a few things that kept me:

Mists of Pandaria

Homework (yep, I actually do it)

Thinking about the story rather than writing it down.

9gag (oh how I hate you)

Being a lazy, unmotivated ass

Be it as it may, I finally have finished the chapter and, without talking too much, here it is.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 12 – Spy / Survivor / Anger**

From afar a figure, completely hidden under a brown leather cloak, eavesdropped on the figures sitting around the campfire. She had hidden herself in the crown of an oak and looked through the leafage to see what was going on at the campfire. Unfortunately she was not as close as she had liked to be because she did not want to be detected by the warriors around the fire and hence could not hear clearly what they said.

Out of the six warriors that were present she only knew the number two at that time, Vectra. 'She looks like she had a though fight not too long ago' she mused in regard to Vectra's distorted face. The pig tailed warrior seemed like she had met her before, but she was not absolutely sure.

'Still,' she mused again, 'quite a party they have assembled here.'

She was right: though she could not tell the actual ranks of the warriors, she was sure that, besides Vectra, there were two to three other Single Digits, the rest at least close to those ranks. The only one she could not judge properly was the warrior with straight blonde hair that had her bangs hang loose directly above her eyes and had two strands run over her collarbones to end at her unimpressive chest. Her Yoki was nearly not present, she had to be suppressing it quite well.

A few fragments of Vectra's talk reached her ears: "...went missing... awakened... still human... searching for her... kill her..."

The last two words made the unnoticed auditor's eyes widen a little. 'Are they talking about _her_?' she wondered.

The pig tailed warrior then had become stiff and asked something that sounded like she wanted to know the name of the person they looked for.

All that she could hear was: "Jacqueline..."

'I knew it! They wouldn't leave her alone so easily!' she thought, making a grim face.

"_She_ is alive?" was the first sentence she could hear clearly since it was yelled by the pig tailed warrior who had suddenly shot up and gotten angry. The eavesdropper could clearly feel a short but noticeable rise of Yoki from her. It soon calmed, however, as the one with many braids seemingly calmed her.

She sat down again and from her hidden position she could still see a tear run down the warrior's face. Her Yoki as well as her body were shaking in anger. Whatever the reason, she seemed to have business with Jacqueline as well.

Suddenly one of the younger warriors, the one with long, wavy hair, directed her gaze directly towards her hiding place. Then her neutral expression turned into the faintest of smiles and suddenly the person spying on them could feel a heavy pressure on her head and heart.

"Shit" she hissed and began to move away quickly.

Suddenly fear had gotten her. 'The fuck was that?' she yelled inwardly while getting away as fast as possible. '_That_ was a warrior?'

The feeling she had gotten from that what seemed to just be a mere smile brought memories back to her...

###

_In an instant everything was over. A force, up to that day never before felt by her, toppled her mind. A searing pain ran through all of her lower body. Her senses left her all at once shortly after._

_Then, a little later, only her eyes were slightly opened. She saw a face in front of her. A face overrun with tears. It yelled: "Don't die! Not you, too!"_

_She had no power to respond in any way. Even moving her eyes was a hard task on her._

_'Forget it' she thought. 'It's useless. I'm dying' she wanted to tell her._

_But she couldn't._

###

She shook her head shortly after stopping, slightly out of breath. 'No need for memories of that day' she though to herself.

She scanned the area behind her to see if anyone was following her, but despite the girl with wavy hair no one seemed to have noticed her. Slightly relieved she sat down and leaned against a tree to take a little break.

'So they are going after her...' she mused while looking nowhere. 'The whole party? Even for her, that could be troublesome... Especially' she closed her eyes for a little before opening them again 'whit _that_ girl around. Just what is she? Her Yoki... it clearly rivaled Jacqueline's!'

She considered her options: She could either go and warn Jacqueline about the warriors that were on her trail or she could try to take care of that matter herself. The first option, however, did not come into question since Jacqueline would have been able to sense them from tens of miles away. The second option was too risky. Going against six warriors of their caliber, with an unratable one and a possible monster amongst them was not a very bright idea.

'Well then,' she concluded, 'for now I'll watch.'

She then arose, facing the opposite direction of where the warriors she was going to watch for a little longer were. 'From a farther distance, that is.'

###

Nearly no one noticed Teresa's look into the woods and her smile that had followed directly after, due to Liara's behavior. She had calmed down a little and taken her seat again, yet her fists were still clenched and her face showed deep displeasure.

'Why? Why only _her_?' she was thinking. To her that wasn't fair: her friends had to die and _she_ survived? She could not even think of a way for Vanessa and Neerie to die in the first place. Had it been Jacqueline's fault? After all she hadn't returned to the Organization. Liara was about to jump to conclusions as she heard her name spoken in the calmest of tones. Her view then rose to meet the cold, half-closed, silver eyes of Hitomi's stoic face.

"Come with me for a while" she demanded and arose.

Liara hesitated for a moment, not noticing Anna's worried gaze. She knew of Hitomi's affection for Jacqueline and was afraid that Liara might have angered the Organization's number 5.

As Hitomi stopped in her tracks and looked back, asking, if Liara hadn't heard her, the latter arose, too, and followed her into to trees, not left by Anna's gaze.

###

After they had walked for a few minutes, Hitomi stopped again, having Liara stop a few meters behind her.

"What is your connection to Jacqueline and the ones that were with her on their last mission?" the higher ranked warrior asked after a few moments of silence.

Her comrade closed her eyes to think for a moment. She also had heard that Hitomi and Jacqueline had been somewhat close. Whatever the case, Hitomi would most likely not be satisfied with any answer. On the other hand Liara was bright enough not to say everything that was on her mind just as it came to her. The Organization's number 5 was not known for her patience and calmness. Messing with her was out of the question, especially since she also was known for being as fast as Hysteria and for having a technique that might be even faster.

'I would not stand a chance' the short woman concluded.

With closed eyes she then posed a counter-question: "In what way does my connection to them concern you?"

Her superior, without hesitation this time, answered: "Two years ago Jacqueline went on a hunt for Luciela of the South, together with the _Doublefingers_, former number 1 and 2. The mission failed, the _Doublefingers_ are confirmed dead and Jacqueline went missing. Everyone believed that she had awakened, even me. Now, however, it is considered possible, even likely, as Dae himself was told me to have said, that she is still human. Still, why didn't she return to the Organization? Why did she betray her comrades?"

After a short pause she added in a voice so quiet that Liara could barely hear it: "Why has she left me like this? If you have any information regarding her, tell me!"

So it was pretty much as Liara had heard and figured. Hitomi really liked Jacqueline and most likely felt betrayed by her. That didn't make things easier for Liara, though.

Trying to find a way to begin to explain she placed herself next to her fellow warrior and asked without looking at her: "So you feel betrayed by her, huh?"

"A little" she was answered.

Liara sighed. It was her turn then: "Neerie and Vanessa were close friends of mine. Together we wanted to become the Organization's top three, the most powerful unit they have ever had. They already were number 1 and 2 as we made that promise, though, so I did all I could to catch up."

'All I could' she mused, before she continued: "As I had made it to number 13 I met Jacqueline. She was number 6 at that time. Meeting her thought me how long my way still was. I admired her, more than just a little. She gave me something like a way-point on my way to becoming number 3. As I heard that her and my friends were going after Luciela I naively thought that nothing could go wrong since it were the three of them. Something died in me as I heard that my friends were dead and that Jacqueline had awakened but as time went by I became more and more able to accept it. I know of the dangers that lie deep within our bodies and what can happen if things go wrong. Even though it would have made things easier for me, there just was no one to blame."

She then closed her eyes again and made a few steps forward. Her voice had turned more honest as she continued: "If she really is still human she has to have her reasons for not returning. And she'll be able to tell me just what happened. My question is why she is alive while my friends-"

"You think she might be to blame?" Hitomi's still calm voice cut her off.

Though Hitomi's Yoki was sealed quite well Liara was able to tell that Hitomi's calmness was a mere facade. She had upset her and she had to calm her. However, she had forgotten to think about her own emotions first, as she exclaimed a little louder: "I am not saying that!"

The little spike in Hitomi's Yoki went past her notelessly.

"It is just hard to accept that they are dead. I want to know why and she is the only one capable of telling me" she explained gesturing wildly as she turned around to Hitomi and her emotions got the better of her.

"Couldn't she have saved them? Has she run away and abandoned them? Neerie and Vanessa were way stronger than her! There is no way for her to be the sole survivor without turning tail and betraying their comrades!"

"So you really think that she is responsible?" Hitomi asked in a deep voice, suddenly stopping to seal her Yoki and steadily letting it flow out of her body at a low percentage.

Liara got startled by that as she realized just what she had said. The sudden change in Hitomi's eyes that, though they weren't golden then, still had gotten something menacing about them, was sending icy showers down her back.

"What if she was? What if your assumptions were true?" Number 5 pressed.

Liara thought for a moment. She had maneuvered herself into a dead end, so there was no reason to hold back anymore. She clenched her fists hard and furiously yelled: "What am I supposed to tell you now? Isn't it clear? I'd want revenge of course! Wouldn't you want revenge for your dead friends, too, if you knew that someone was responsible for their deaths?"

"I wonder," Hitomi answered, again calmly speaking, "how many people would want to exact revenge on you, then."

Liara's breath faltered and her eyes widened.

"You see, Liara, the first time you met Jacqueline she was number 40 and you were number 23. Why would you alter your story, I wonder?"

Liara gulped.

"According to a very talkative warrior you were, well, envious of Jacqueline's ensuing promotion, to say the least."

Liara got more and more nervous. She knew what Hitomi was playing at.

"It appears that, in what ever way you managed to do that, got to the conclusion, that, in order to be promoted you just have to clear the ranks above you."

"R-rumors!" Liara shouted, "there's nothing true about it!"

"Do you know what that talkative warriors last words were?"

She made a pause to see Liara's face turn chalk-withe.

"She said: _Be careful of Liara. I wasn't._"

"N-no!" Liara stuttered. "It wasn't-"

"Tattletale Lisa, former number 7. Despite being mortally wounded she still did what she enjoyed most: telling stories of other warriors. The last one she ever told was about you."

At that Liara drew her blade and rushed towards Hitomi but the latter's image just vanished shortly after Liara's fast, horizontal swing. Before she knew she herself vanished, too, as she felt all the air in her lungs being rigorously pressed out, directly followed by several hits with trees all over her body that were accompanied by crackling and crashing noises.

It took her a while to catch her breath again. She still had no idea what had hit her and her whole body was in pain. As she slowly put herself up she saw broken trees and branches along a way of roughly fifty meters.

"You see, Liara," she got startled by Hitomi's voice from her right, but she was already gone the moment the frightened woman slashed in that direction, as the voice already continued from far behind her, "I don't care about what you did in the slightest."

"But," it sounded from close behind that time just before Liara missed again as Hitomi, roughly twenty meters away, walking towards her, exclaimed, "I won't let scum like you..."

She then appeared directly in front of a highly scared Liara, having her right hand firmly gripped around her still sheathed claymore's hilt, finishing her sentence yelling: "TALK SHIT ABOUT JACQUELINE!"

###

Eyes as calm as death himself changed their direction of view as their owner felt a strong wave of Yoki hitting her, to look into the direction it came from. The person that was hidden under a long cloak did not let her view slide to another direction, just as if she could see what was going on.

"I wonder," she softly said to herself, "why is she so angry?"

While monitoring the proceedings from afar, she also noticed how close her pursuers already had come. 'Whatever you want, Organization's warriors, keep away' she thought to herself.

"No," she whispered, "just you stay away, Hitomi."

A moment of absolute silence followed.

"I don't want to face you yet."

More minutes passed while she, taking a closer look at her pursuers, noticed, that they were not two anymore, but six. Before she could give that any thought, close to her she heard the rustling of some bushes as another cloaked figure appeared.

"Hello again" Jacqueline, acknowledging her friend, said, startling the other one.

"Oh, Jacqueline, didn't think t'meet y'here" the other one said while recovering from the little fright. "Y'know, people might get scared t'death if y'keep hidin' so well" she added with a little grin on her face.

"That is not my fault, Vanessa. If your senses were better you could still feel my presence, no matter how hard I tried."

"Meh," she was answered, "y're just awesome 'n stuff, that's all."

The both of them shared a moment of silence while Vanessa was also directing her view into the direction Hitomi's outburst had came from.

"I bet y'already know," she started after a while, "but the Old Man's Association's sent warriors after ya."

"You have won your bet" the taller woman blankly answered.

"Yeah yeah," the former Number 2 said sighing. "Hadn't planned runnin' into ya, were just lookin' for a safer place t'spy."

Jacqueline directed her view towards Vanessa then, effectively hiding her surprise about her needing a safe place to spy.

Vanessa, noticing but ignoring her comrades look, explained: "They've gotten quite da crew for ya. A Top 'n two o' three Singles. 'N two others, one I can't judge 'n the other's fright'ning." She paused for a little, before adding, a lot quieter: "Nearly's fright'ning's ya."

'That would make six as I have just felt them, then' Jacqueline thought. 'I only had felt two of them the day before yesterday. Seems like they're up to something serious.'

However, she pushed those thoughts aside for a while to properly react to Vanessa's statement: "What has happened two years ago is a part of me and, sad as it is, that will never change. It's deep down in everyone of us, sometimes hidden, sometimes openly shown at any possible occasion. However, no matter what happens, what has taken control of me I will never allow to do so again. Please trust me on that."

"I'm sorry" her friend apologized. "Shouldn't have said that. Y'saved ma bacon, I shouldn't complain."

At that Jacqueline's eyes closed halfway and her view lowered a bit, as she remembered: 'And you always forget to mention whose fault that situation was.'

Without really thinking about it, she began to talk...

###

_Back then, as we went to hunt the Abyssal One of the South, Luciela, I knew of the dangers. I thought that I was prepared, but I wasn't._

_As we had encountered her, things went as well as we could have expected it under these circumstances. But as the battle continued, the strain on my mind grew and grew. And grew. I struggled for control and somehow was able to maintain it. And then, as my own mind was so focused on keeping control of Luciela, as much as it was possible, it happened._

_Neerie passed her limits and with that outburst my sanity went away. I lost control, completely. I barely can remember what happened, but I remember well what happened afterward._

_I found your upper body lying on its back. I could barely sense your Yoki but I was desperate. Without even thinking of looking for your lower body to have you reattach it I bent over you and told you not to die. I was begging you to try to regenerate, but nothing happened._

_And a thought came to my mind. I could control Yoki to alter someones movements, so why not manipulate it in a way to regenerate ones body? You are the living proof that it works. And you always misinterpret it as me saving your life. But the truth is that, if I just had been stronger, we all could have survived. You wouldn't have to be hurt so badly and I wouldn't have lost control. You, me and..._

###

"Don't say her name again" Vanessa interrupted Jacqueline. "And don't keep talking such bullshit. It doesn't change anything!"

Though she had kept her stoic expression, the memories of that day had made her eyes teary like they always did. Vanessa was wrong. Jacqueline believed that everything what had went wrong on that day was no one else's but her fault. Though she did all to hide how devastated she was inside, how guilty she felt, she could not hide it in front of Vanessa, the only friend she had ever had since then.

"Yeah, she's dead," Vanessa lectured her friend, "but the two'f us're alive. That's more'n we coulda hoped for!"

With that Jacqueline sunk to her knees and began to sob every now and then. Vanessa kneeled down next to her, rested her hand on her friend's shoulder and playfully said: "You do never change, do you, crybaby?"

"Honestly," she whispered, continuing in her thoughts, 'if you had awakened, everyone would have been done for.'

###

Trees were rushing past her after she had felt Hitomi's Yoki burst. 'I knew it!' she kept repeatedly thinking, cursing herself for having Liara go with the Organization's number 5 on her own. She was boundlessly worried about her friend, being absolutely sure that she had said too much.

She knew that Liara was naive and childish but that she as well knew how to handle delicate situations. Most of the time, that was. She had angered the testy woman said to be on par with the Organizations number 1 in terms of speed and Anna feared said woman's reaction to whatever had happened.

As she reached a small clearing a wave of sound and wind made all her senses suddenly switching into slow motion. Facing her with her back stood Liara, Hitomi directly in front of her. Anna could see drops of blood, small pieces of skin and scraps of cloth hover around her friend. With widening eyes she saw Liara's blade glide out of her hand. Directly afterwards the pig tailed warrior's body went limb and she slowly slumped to her knees and then onto her left side. The moment the dull sound of Liara collapsing reached Anna's ears she snapped out of her shock-like state and screamed Liara's name.

She dashed over to her unconscious comrade and kneeled down next to her. The state her friend was in totally bowled her over. Carefully, completely ignoring the Organization's number 5, who watched her with calm and cold, then again silver eyes, she rolled Liara onto her back. Her whole body cluttered with small cuts and nearly every inch of her skin and uniform was blood red. Her eyes were half closed and didn't show the slightest reaction to seeing Number 7, Anna.

Hitomi released her blade's handle and stepped over Liara, inches past Anna, had not been able then to realize what had happened, and calmly began to walk away.

"Crying will not help her" she said without the slightest bit of emotion in her voice.

At that moment Anna realized that she was crying and that her friend did not emit the slightest trace of Yoki anymore. In the state she was it took a while until it dawned on her what that meant.

Without letting her gaze leave Liara she slowly arose and the abrasive noise of her claymore being drawn by her killed the silence around them. She slowly turned around and began to walk towards Hitomi, who had stopped in her tracks.

"Put that away" she said admonishingly and turned around.

A few meters away from Hitomi Anna also stopped. All she asked was: "Why?"

Though she should be a raging beast right now – or at least that was what she thought she should be – she was just as calm as TNT right before exploding. Hitomi also could see that and it somehow reminded her of herself just a few minutes before. She, however, though she was angered so easily, could always control her anger to a degree that she would not lose her reason through it. Anna did not seem that way to her. Still it didn't matter much to Hitomi because she was confident that, no matter what Anna did, she could stop her.

So she openly told Anna the truth: "Because she verbally defiled the one most important to me, that is."

At that Anna snapped. Instantly releasing thirty percent of her Yoki, hence turning her eyes golden and deforming her face in an unsightly way she blindly rushed towards an opponent she knew she had no chance of defeating. But – as Hitomi had suspected – she had lost her ability to make rational decisions.

All she managed was mindlessly slashing through the steadily vanishing afterimages of Hitomi, not even close to realizing that she was open on all sides.

"Over something like that?" she yelled at Hitomi, raising her Yoki again.

"You know," the vanishing images of Hitomi calmly said to her, "you should not be doing that right know."

Before Anna knew it, her blade was blocked and violently smashed out of her hand, followed by a painful kick into her stomach that sent her flying to where Liara lay. Anna was on all fours and her forehead rested on the ground as she tried to regain her breath. Her Yoki was still released but the pain had brought some of her senses back.

Her breath and heart stopped for a moment as her own blade was rammed into the ground right next to her head.

"Why'd you have to kill her?" she whimpered with ground teeth and a face overrun by tears.

That made Hitomi blink two times. "Since when were you under the impression that she was dead?" she asked disbelievingly.

With that Anna's crying stopped immediately.

"Don't tell me you only have checked on her Yoki and therefore declared her dead?" the higher ranked warrior asked with a raised eyebrow.

Forgetting the pain in her stomach Anna hastily crawled over to her friend that she had presumed dead just to see her chest lifting and lowering like nothing happened.

"Don't scare me like that, stupid" she puled and began to cry again while having a smile wider than the Grand Canyon on her face.

"Really," Hitomi began to sarcastically mock her, "of course, if the Yoki is gone she is dead, we don't have things like breath or a heartbeat, of course not!"

She sighed, turned around and, before walking away, told Anna: "If you want her to stay alive you better take care of her. If you want to get beaten up by me you can come anytime later."

Just after Hitomi had finished her sentence Vectra, Teresa and Irene, who also were worried (well, despite Teresa, she just didn't want to stay at the campfire on her own since she found that to be boring) arrived at the scene as well.

"Ah, good that you are here. I think we should leave" Hitomi said to her superior.

"Don't tell me that she is..." dead, Vectra wanted to say, as Hitomi sharply interrupted her: "Don't insult me." She then started walking away. Shortly after Vectra followed. 'Seems like I have to keep an eye on her' she thought. 'Especially... when we meet her.'

###

Not too far away said person was, together with her friend Vanessa, still watching the scene.

Here you are to imagine two cloaked figures standing atop a hill. The heaven is orange since it is dusk and dramatic music is playing.

"This is not an Anime, author."

To you it is still Mr. author.

"How about no?"

* * *

Author's notes:

That's it, folks.

After taking so long to put my thoughts to paper (well, not literally) I think that I will drastically shorten the chapters from now on. That has the benefit that motivating myself to actually write my thoughts down will be easier, since three to four pages is far less than around ten. In addition to that it will be easier naming my chapters (Though I might just go with numbers, don't know yet.)

This will, however, not change the amount of things left to tell at all, it will only come in easier digestible portions.

About the chapter, well, I brought Vanessa back – that was not planned from the start, but the shortly before she "died". Teresa had her second appearance and, everyone who understood what Jacqueline's dream is about (see chapters 3 or 11 if you don't remember) knows that she will have to meet our black haired heroine. I am looking forward to it!

About next chapter, I can't say too much yet since I have two or three things to sort out. But expect it to be a faster update than this one.

_kstefan88_


	14. Chapter 13: Wrong trail?

Author's notes:

I still do not own Claymore blah blah.

Okay, after I had done the chapter I read it over and over, hated it more and more with every time reading it and simply began anew. And I can say, yep, it is shorter, but considerably better (imo)

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 13 – Wrong trail?**

"She was here! Just a few minutes ago!" Vectra suddenly said shortly after she had abruptly stopped in her tracks, making Hitomi's eyes widen.

"We have no time to lose, then!" the latter said emphatically.

They stood in the middle of a wide plain that reached as far as the eye could see. The soil beneath their feet had many cracks all over it and was as dry as a bone and very dusty. The only thing that differed from the plain was a single mountain in the north that seemed to be around three miles away.

Vectra carefully nosed the air while making a wondering face that soon turned a little grim, as she said: "Why haven't I noticed?"

"What are you babbling about?" her comrade asked enervated. "Let's get going already, which direction?" she added, getting a little upset about the detention.

"Calm yourself would you?" her superior demanded. She then walked around a little, nosing the air the whole time, while she got a clearer picture of the situation.

"Dammit," she cursed, "how could I not have noticed that earlier?"

"What is it?" Hitomi asked while trying to stay calm.

For the past few days they had gotten closer and closer to Jacqueline. Hitomi had been tense the whole time because she absolutely could not wait to see her after more than two years. And then, as they were so close to her, Vectra slowed them down for no apparent reason. Or at least she did not tell her comrade the reason, what upset the latter.

Vectra faced Hitomi who was taking long, deep breaths to somehow keep her temper in check, and explained the situation to her: "From the very beginning she was not traveling alone. The scent of her old uniform did not match her scent exactly, even if you consider how old it already was, but I thought, that her scent might have changed over time. Unfortunately I was mistaken, ..."

"Well, what?" Hitomi sharply interrupted her.

"The more often you interrupt me, the longer it will take to explain" her comrade reminded her, making her sigh heavily.

"As I said, I was mistaken. It was not her smell that was different, it was a second person traveling with her. A warrior as I can tell now. The two of them have separated, the one who went northeast smelling more like Jacqueline. At any rate, lets follow the one who went northeast" she finished her explanation.

She was about to begin following said person, as Hitomi said: "She went northwest."

That puzzled Vectra a little what clearly could be seen in her facial expression. Hitomi, knowing that they had no time to lose, explained, talking rather fast: "Firstly, they know that we are following them. They also know that we are most likely after Jacqueline, because she is the only missing warrior right now. Secondly, Jacqueline knows that I can not sense her and she should also know that you can't sense her. The only other thing that could give her location away is her smell, what she should know, too. She most likely assumed that we were following her by smell. The two of them splitting up is of course thought to lead us on a wrong trail. Of course we would follow the one that smells more like her. She assumes that we don't waste time thinking about them trying to lure us away from her, so they have arranged for the one that is not Jacqueline to smell more like her than the actual Jacqueline, by simply exchanging their cloaks. Furthermore, Jacqueline is a _right-type_. So it is more likely for her to pass the mountain on its left, so it is right of her."

Vectra blinked a few times. "A _right-type_?" she asked.

"Easy:" Hitomi began to explain, "I spent two months together with her and I like watching people, so I noticed a few things. For instance, when we were sitting at a campfire, she always placed herself left to me. When I placed myself left to her she looked at me way less often while talking to me. If a tree, a person or something else is in her path, she passes it left to avoid it. She looks to the right considerably more often than to the left. And, last, but not least, she is a right-hander."

Her comrade tilted her head a little and then gave her opinion: "First of all, I think that pseudo-psychological _right-type_ stuff is nonsense. About the other thing, yes, they most likely split up to lead us on a wrong trail. However, they are well aware that the Organization has not sent some amateurs after them. They of course assume that we think about why they have split up. Secondly, they have no way of knowing who we are after. Thirdly, even if they knew, they have no way of knowing that we are following their smell. We could as well be following their footprints since they have spent most of their time walking through a forest with moist soil. Also, their footprints look exactly the same and even if not we had no way of telling which one Jacqueline is. And, since they have left the forest for this plane where they don't leave footprints supports the idea of them thinking that we are following their footprints. We follow the one who went northeast, after all."

"Wait a moment!" Hitomi shouted at her disappointed. "Let alone the fact that you are wrong about the _right-type_ being of no importance, why would they even have split up, when they were assuming that we were following their trails?"

"Just because they assume that we are following their trails doesn't mean they automatically exclude any other way of tracking them. We are following the one northeast and now I don't want to hear another word!" Vectra stated emphatically.

She began to head north while Hitomi ground her teeth, mumbling: "You better are right!"

Hitomi then caught up with her superior angrily telling her to at least hand Hitomi her blade. Vectra was puzzled, asking her what for. Without hesitation Hitomi took Vectra's blade herself and put it into the second fitting on her back and before her superior could protest Hitomi grabbed her and began to carry her bridal-style.

"What the...!" Vectra protested, her face slightly blushed.

"If you are right," Hitomi explained harshly, "Jacqueline will still get away from us easily with as slow as you are. So from now on I am the legs and you are the nose!"

"Th-that's ridiculous! I am your superior, treat me with a little more respect!"

"Stop the babbling, start the sniffling" Hitomi deadpanned before starting to accelerate to a speed that only left afterimages of her and Vectra every twenty meters.

###

A cloaked figure that was dashing right into a forest looked behind for a moment, revealing a wide grin from under her hood.

* * *

Author's notes:

Yep, that actually is it. As I said, chapters will become shorter. And after starting that chapter anew since the first version was crap, I can say: this is the length following chapters will most likely have.

This one here has a lot of conversation and I want to know what you think of Hitomi's and Vectra's reasoning.

Next time the both of them will encounter either Jacqueline or Vanessa, that much is for sure.

Until then, stay tuned!

And to anyone who has noticed that I had Jacqueline state that Vanessa was dead: Yep, that was a mistake, I will correct that in the future.

_kstefan88_


	15. Chapter 14: Encounter

Author's notes:

Thank you again, dear readers and reviewers. Here we go, only one week has passed since the last update.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 14 – Encounter**

* * *

In the middle of a wide forest track there stood a cloaked person. She was a warrior, called Claymore by the people, and she had left the Organization on her own accord, after the hunt for Luciela more than two years before. That was the day she had made the decision to not return, ultimately making her a deserter, a traitor. The Organization had a simple way of dealing with them: to have them executed by their former comrades.

The day she and two of her comrades had fought Luciela of the South, which had cost one of her comrade's lives, she deserted the Organization together with the other survivor of that day. They had decided to stay close to each other, to be able to help each other out. They had, however, been trailed for about a month – and their pursuers had never gotten that close to them. Knowing that they would eventually be caught, one of them had decided that it was better to split up. Though her friend did not see any reason for that, she agreed.

As they had assumed, their pursuers would not split up since only one of them was able to follow their scent. The both of them knew who the Organization's warriors had followed. One of them was, on the one hand, relieved, but on the other hand worried about her friend. The other one had stopped in the middle of a wide forest track, thinking, that she had lured them far enough away. She was prepared to fight them, if it was necessary.

In south direction she could see something that looked like one warrior carrying another dash out of the woods directly onto the forest track, heading towards her.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, though it could not be seen due to her hood dyeing her face in shadows.

"There she is!" she could hear the one being carried shouting.

The both of them stopped a few meters away from her. An awkward silence filled the atmosphere.

'Dammit,' Vanessa thought, 'level of ridiculousness too high... must... not... laugh...'

Before her there stood Hitomi, carrying two blades on her back and Vectra on her hands.

"Can't... hold it..." the deserter whispered, before she pointed at the two warriors, shouting and laughing: "Y'look – ha ha – too ridic'lous! Ha ha!"

At that moment Hitomi as well as Vectra noticed that the person right in front of them was definitely not Jacqueline. Hitomi let Vectra fall to the ground and as the latter wanted to complain about it she realized that Hitomi had been right from the very beginning. Knowing her temper she got away from her rashly, while Hitomi just stood there, completely dull.

'Shit... that's the quiet before the storm' Vectra feared.

Vanessa, who had calmed down and caught her breath again, cleared her throat and asked: "So, ya lapdogs, what'ya want from good ol' me?"

Vectra, who still kept her distance to Hitomi, realized more and more that she had gotten into a dangerous situation. Not only did she have no weapon, she could feel that Hitomi was boiling on the inside, though she did not show it. In addition to that, if she was right, they had ran into Vanessa, the former number 2. She, of course, wondered why she was alive, but she shoved those thoughts aside and tried to stay calm.

The moment she wanted to introduce herself and the job she and Hitomi had, Hitomi loudly said "Vectra!" while still not having changed her facial expression. Her fists, however, were, though just lightly, clenched.

Vectra decided to not say anything and swallow the words she had wanted to say to let Hitomi speak first. 'Shit,' she thought, 'really, shit!'

Hitomi directed her gaze to Vectra who suddenly felt like she had been stabbed in the chest multiple times. 'Such an aura' she mused. 'She has not even released her Yoki yet!'

"I herewith declare you unable of leading this mission. From now on you will do what I say and don't you dare open your mouth another time!" Hitomi made herself clear.

Vectra was upset as well as struck by her comrade's piercing aura. She wanted to yell at Hitomi but she also did not want to make things worse, so she remained silent while grinding her teeth.

"My, gals," Vanessa chimed in, "get 'long, will ya? "

Hitomi turned her gaze towards Vanessa then. Though Vanessa could see her anger, she didn't care to behave differently than she would have otherwise.

"So, gals, tell me then, what'y want wi'good ol' me?" the former Number 2 asked yet again.

Hitomi took a deep breath. Though she felt like beating the shit out of her incompetent partner and though she was pissed to no end that they had actually followed the wrong person she tried to calm herself as much as possible, before she spoke up: "With you, whoever you are, nothing, to be honest. The one we're looking for is Jacqueline."

"What shame, since ther'ain't nobody'ere whose name that is. Me's Vanessa, once number 2 of the Old Man's Association" she explained, despite knowing that they were looking for Jacqueline and not her.

"I see" Hitomi answered. She hid her wonder about Vanessa still being alive. Jacqueline was of greater importance to her. "You might not happen to know where she is?" she asked calmly.

"Nah" the former warrior answered while taking off her cloak, revealing her blue cloth-suit as well as both of her blades, making Hitomi contract her brows a little.

"What are you taking off your cloak for?" she asked with a rather tense voice.

"Y'see, gals," she began to explain and, while drawing both of her blades, said: "Y'ain't goin' t'meet her."

Hitomi gently grabbed the hilt of her own blade and, with a monotone voice, asked: "And that would be why?"

Vectra, seeing in which direction things were going, though having to risk angering Hitomi, stepped between the two of them, pointed her left palm towards Hitomi and her right palm towards Vanessa, and, while alternatingly looking at the two of them, explained as fast as possible: "We did not come to fight! Please calm down, both of you!"

For a moment things went silent, only the Organization's Number 2's breathing could be heard. The atmosphere had become menacingly tense. On the one hand there was Hitomi, an unparalleled spitfire, who was pissed and most likely unamenable to words. On the other hand there was Vanessa, a former Number 2, that, even though her partner was not there, still was no one to joke about.

'I've never been in deeper shit' Vectra thought bitterly.

* * *

Author's notes:

Poor Vectra, I hope she manages to calm the situation, though we'd miss a great fight, then.

Next time (week? Let's see) we will get to know a little about Jacqueline's reasons for not returning. And a certain someone will get to hear some things that she won't like.

Until next time!

_kstefan88_


	16. Chapter 15: Revelation

Author's notes:

Claymore is still not mine, but what I did with it, is.

Here we are again. Will Vectra calm the situation, or is the tension going to burst? Let's see!

Enjoy!

**Chapter 15 – Revelation**

* * *

"Haven't I asked you to keep quiet?" the Organization's Number 5 sharply asked her superior Vectra, who had stepped between her and Vanessa to keep the situation from escalating. She knew that a fight was avoidable and so she had risked to get caught in the crossfire of Hitomi and Vanessa clashing. She needed a plan and she needed it quickly.

"Hitomi," Vectra reminded her comrade, though she could feel the rising tension inside of the latter, well knowing what might have happened, if that tension were to unload all at once, "we did not come to fight an therefore won't if we can avoid it!"

"She," Hitomi hissed while glaring at the former Number 2 for a short moment, "has already made clear that she will neither lead us to Jacqueline nor quietly let us leave. So I'll just..."

"That is what _you_ concluded, Hitomi!" her comrade interrupted her sharply. "Just for once let your brain and not your temper decide!"

Hitomi's grip around her blade's hilt tightened and her face lost its neutral look and began to clearly show how she felt inside.

Her comrade shot her a rebuking look before her gaze turned towards Vanessa, who had slightly amusedly followed the dispute between the two Organization's warriors, and suggested: "Please ignore the hothead here. As I said, I would like to solve this whole matter verbally. If that fails we can cut each other up to our heart's content."

Vanessa thought for a moment, then made a more honest face and said: "Without a fight, eh? Pretty rich comin' outta the mouth of a lapdog of those ol' farts. How y'think y'do that?"

"Jacqueline might be our target, but not for execution!" Vectra explained, making Vanessa's right eyebrow rise. "We are merely here to make an offer on behalf of our Organization."

"'N if she were t'refuse?" Vanessa shot back instantly.

'I hope she swallows what is going to follow' Vectra thought, before as convincingly as possible lying to the deserter: "We return, that's it."

Hitomi then suddenly released her claymore's handle. She had not calmed, but the rationally thinking part of her had decided to give Vectra another chance. In fact she also had no intention of fighting a former Number 2, especially if she had been part of the _Doublefingers_. Still, she stood tense and was ready to react to whatever was coming if things were to not proceed like she wanted them to.

"Sorry gals," Vanessa declared, "but I ain't trusin' y'on bit, t'make this clear."

She did not sheath her blades to be ready for anything. Jacqueline had told her quite a few things about Hitomi and also her fighting style, so she had no intention of lowering her guard one bit. She then merely demanded: "Talk!"

'Good' Vectra thought and, loosening up a little, completely turned around to Vanessa. She felt a bead of sweat run down on the left side of her forehead while trying to calm herself – the former Number 2 still having drawn both of her blades didn't make that easy – and then explained, slightly altering the truth to make avoiding a fight more likely: "More than two years ago you, Neerie and Jacqueline went after Luciela of the South. The result of that battle was, officially, at least, you and Neerie having died and Jacqueline having awakened. Though I am curious how you are alive, since – if I remember correctly – your corpse was found, the matter more interesting to the Organization is Jacqueline. Due to several events occuring afterwards the Organization has come to the conclusion that Jacqueline has not awakened and therefore has deserted after the fight against Luciela. Normally that would of course lead to her execution, but there are two major reasons that keep the Organization from doing that."

She raised her left index and said: "Firstly, we are in dire need of strong warriors, so we can't afford losing them due to avoidable fights and," she additionally raised her left middle finger, "secondly, and that is the more important reason," she made a stage wait, "we simply don't have the forces to execute her to begin with."

'He,' her comrade thought, 'not stupid at all.'

Vectra hoped to have deceived Vanessa. She tried to read into the deserters Yoki, but that was of no use due to her suppressing it perfectly. Vanessa sheathed both of her blades while taking a deep breath, relieving Vectra a lot. Hitomi stood tense, though.

Vanessa thought for a little while having her eyes closed and her arms crossed. What Vectra had said could actually be true: Jacqueline already had been amongst the strongest warriors of the Organization before having passed her limits and returned. At that moment it was likely that she was the strongest warrior alive. In addition to that finding her was an ordeal on its own, though Vectra would find her – sooner or later.

"Fine then" she said. "What would it be that those ol' farts have t'offer?"

"A full pardon in return for Jacqueline returning to the Organization" Vectra stated truthfully.

'I see' Vanessa mused. 'Jacqueline might be the strongest now, but it won't stay like that forever. To most people a full pardon might indeed be favorable. However...'

"I understand," Vanessa began to explain, "but she'll turn that offer down."

That made Vectra hesitate, so Hitomi chimed in, her voice sounding honest and a little menacing: "How can you be so sure about that?"

Vectra startedly shot a look at Hitomi, inwardly pleading for her to not mess things up.

"I guess it's alright if I tell y'a little" the former warrior of the Organization decided. "List'n up, I won't say stuff twice!"

"Y'see, when we fought that chick, Jacqueline came close t'her limits'n lost it for a moment. Her bod' went berserk'n killed Neerie in'n instant. My lower bod' got detached by Luciela 'n I thought I'd had it. Jacqueline forced my Yoki t'regen'rate me'n here I am. She, however, thought that she was t'blame for Neerie's death. She cried a lot'n whined 'bout bein' weak'n bein' nothin' but a threat t'oever was with her. That's why she d'cided t'live alone'n get stronger so she wouldn't be a danger t'her comrades anymore."

'So this is what happened. I never thought that something like _that_ was possible. She could save so many lives with that. And it also explains why Vanessa was declared dead, because the Man in Black might have found her lower body...' Vectra mused.

"I see," Hitomi said while staring at the ground, "that's so like her."

She then raised her view to meet Vanessa's and said: "Since she is not going to accept the Organization's offer there is nothing we can do. But please let at least me see her!"

Wariness reflected in Vectra's face. 'What does she want?'

Vanessa, despite knowing how that would feel to Hitomi, truthfully said: "You she wants to meet the least."

Hitomi's eyes widened in shock and she began to shake slightly.

"Y-you're... kidding, right?" she disfluently asked.

* * *

Author's notes:

What is behind the words Vanessa said? You've got one week to guess!

Until next time!

_kstefan88_


End file.
